This is all that remains of one of the greatest cities in the world.
Buried for the past five hundred years it was all but forgotten and built over.
It even became a garbage dump at one point in time and was only accidentally unearthed in 1978 when workers for the electric company were digging near the Mexico City Cathedral. They unearthed a huge disc ten feet in diameter and weighing ten tons. The disc turned out to be dedicated to the Goddess Coyolxauhqui who is shown with her head, arms and legs chopped away from her body. Scholars believe that she should be understood as the Goddess of the Milky Way.
At left the stone as found and below how it would have looked based on trace pigments. (Photos courtesy of Wikipedia)
Mexican pyramids were typically expanded by building over the previous ones. Digging down through these layers of the pyramid takes us back in time. The first temple was begun the year after the city was founded and the pyramid was rebuilt six times. All seven stages of the Templo Mayor, except the first, have been excavated. The first level built probably of wood and earth is under the lake bed now.
The seventh and last temple is what Hernán Cortés and his men saw when they arrived at Tenochtitlan in 1519. Very little of this layer remains because of the destruction the Spaniards wrought when they conquered the city. Cortez description of the city records that he and the other Spaniards were impressed by the number and magnificence of the temples. They had never seen such huge well built cities in Europe complete with running water and sanitation.
Right- The model of the complex at the Templo metro station. The pyramid Cortez found was composed of four sloped terraces with a passage between each level, topped by a great platform. It had two stairways to access the two shrines on the top platform. One was dedicated to Tlaloc the god of water and one to Huitzilopochtli deity of war and of the sun.
The Sacred Precinct had 78 buildings. The current National Palace is built over Monctezumas own house. Prior to the conquest, the area that the Zócalo occupies was- as it is today a huge open space for ceremonies. The city was plundered for stone to build the new Spanish colonial city and also to fill in the canals and the lake. (Imagine if they had not). The Temple’s exact location was forgotten. Now covered with square miles of concrete and steel and over ten million people.
Left-According to tradition the Templo is located on the exact spot where the god Huitzilopochtli gave the Mexica people his sign that they had reached the promised land which was an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. When the wandering tribe saw this they would know they had reached the chosen place. This symbol is on the Mexican flag and all other official documents and seals.
Right- From a mural in the National Palace by Diego Rivera.
Above one can see that this pyramid was several feet below the current ground level- which itself is sinking slowly into the lake bed beneath the modern city.
Left-The top of the original pyramid with altars.
Left-The spaces between the successive pyramids which was originally filled in with dirt and Above-the steps of an earlier structure.
Below a model showing the many layers of successive pyramids.
Below-These unfortunate Spaniards were offered to the Gods at this exact place after they massacred a few hundred locals. Apparently the gods were not satisfied because when Cortez returned he decimated the whole population.
Above- from a codex of the period. Most were burned by the Spaniards.
This head dress below that perhaps a king or a priest would wear is made from hundreds of exotic bird feathers and held together with gold.
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We did not get to the pyramids of Teotihuacan which lie to the north of the current city. (Too many things to do in this city and only so much time). It flourished before the builders of Tenochtitlan and is thought to have been established around 100 BC. The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia commons.
At its zenith in the first half of the 1st millennium AD- Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas with a population estimated at 125,000 making it the sixth largest city in the world during it’s time.
It had been thought that invaders attacked the city in the 7th or 8th centuries, sacking and burning it. More recent evidence seems to indicate that the burning was limited to the structures and dwellings associated primarily with the ruling class. This suggests that the burning was from an internal uprising. Evidence for population decline beginning around the 6th century lends some support to the internal unrest hypothesis. The decline of Teotihuacan has also been correlated to lengthy droughts related to the climate changes of 535–536 CE.
In the Anthropological Museum is a restored portion of Teotihucan architecture showing the typical use of red paint complemented on gold and jade decoration upon marble and granite.
Below are various artifacts from this period and place in the Anthropological Museum.
