Built upon Lake Texcoco, thousands of people flocked to the Great Pyramid. The inauguration of the latest reconstruction by Ahuitzotl occurred in the year 8 Reed (1487). Warrior after warrior captured in the Flower War climbed to the top to be sacrificied to the gods. Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli would be pleased with their followers; blood flowed like a river down the endless staircase. But this was not the final bloodshed - the Spaniards were coming.

Scale model of the Great Pyramid at Tenochtitlan previously located at Templo Mayor museum. Currently on display at the Zocalo Metro Station. [Wikipedia/Wolfgang Sauber CC-SA-3.0]

Aztec ritual human sacrifice portrayed in the page 141
(folio 70r) of the Codex Magliabechiano.
[Wikipedia/Public Domain]

Flower Wars :: name given to the the battles fought between the city-states of the Triple Alliance: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlalcopan, and Huejotzingo. These ritual battles began during the reign of Moctezuma I when a great famine struck the land. Though many interpretations of the Flower Wars exist, the most popular idea is that these wars were a special institutionalized type of warfare used to satisfy the religious needs of the combatants. The warriors captured were honorably sacrificed for the good and welfare of their nation.

Many are familiar with the Aztec empire that flourished from 1325-1519, until the conquest led by Hernan Cortes. Their great capital, Tenochtitlan, was made possible by the cultural unity and political power of their time. But how is a city built on a lake?

Tenochtitlan began as a tiny marsh island in Lake Texcoco and was surrounded by chinampas - an agricultural system created by layering mud and vegetation in shallow parts of lakes. The city was connected to the mainland by three large causeways, which served as dikes - separating the city's freshwater from the surrounding salty waters. Chinampa canals helped convey traffic around the city.

Chinampa model at the Templo Mayor Museum

© Melanie Magdalena

Discovery

It wasn't until the 1900s when the temple was found in ruins. A waterway built tore through the site destroying even more of Mexico's ancient history. Mexico was well aware of the existence of the Great Pyramid; the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral) was purposely built on top of the site to enforce Catholicism on the Aztec people. The site visible today was excavated after in 1978.

Waterway constructed under the street Guatemala
in the 1900s © Melanie Magdalena

Understanding the Ruins

Today the Templo Mayor is open to the public. Much of its majesty and mystery remains buried at the heart of the Zocalo.

Taking that first step into the ruins sends you almost a thousand years back in time. Modern elevated paths take you through the site through its many phases of construction. What are these phases?

Templo Mayor cut-out. The ruins today are visible inside.
© Melanie Magdalena

Each ruler of Tenochtitlan was responsible for enlarging or expanding the Great Pyramid. Not only did the expansions reflect the growing population but may have been motivated by the constant floods the city suffered. These stages of construction are visible "thanks to" the conquest when the city was destroyed.

Templo Mayor and Coyolxauhqui monolith :: Stage IVb
Tlatoani, or lord of Tenochtitlan, Axayacatl expanded the main facade of the Great Pyramid at the beginning of his reign (1469-1481). Four serpent head sculptures were added next to the stairway. Today, two serpents can be seen (one included in the photo) with remains of their original coloring.  © Melanie Magdalena

Destruction of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan fell in 1521 and was almost completely destroyed. The Avila brothers, the conquerors, built their homes on top of the ruins. The brothers and Martin Cortes, son of Hernan Cortes, were arrested and sentenced to death in 1566 for conspiring against the Spanish crown.

For Further Viewing

Please visit our Google Plus album to view all of our photos of Templo Mayor taken during the MexiArch Project :: View album>>

MexiArch Project photos by Melanie E Magdalena are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available. Contact editor@bermudaquest.com for commercial permission.

For Further Reading

"Tenochtitlan." Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.

This article is part of the MexiArch Project (2012) by BermudaQuest

Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl in the Codex Borgia
(also known as Codex Yoalli Ehecatl or Manuscrito de Velleti)
Public Domain

Part of The MexiArch Project (2012)

In Aztec mythology and other Meso-american culture (particulary the Huastec), Ehécatl (náhuatl: ehēcatl) was the wind god. Normally Ehécatl is interpreted as an aspect of Quetzalcóatl, the plumed serpent.

As Quetzalcóatl-Ehécatl, he appears as the breath of life and breeze that brings clouds full of rain for newly planted seeds.

A Creation Deity

According to the Aztec Creation Myth, after the gods were unsatisfied with the men they had created, Ehécatl blew on the Sun and Moon and brought them back to "life":

To populate their new world, the gods sent Quetzalcóatl as Ehécatl to Mictlán (the underworld). There, he was to retrieve the bones of the people of the former world. The ruler, Mictlantechuhtli, and his wife declared he could only take the bones if he travled across the underworld four times while blowing a conch-shell trumpet. The conch-shell had no holes, so Ehécatl called worms to bore holes into it and bees to fly inside and make it roar with their buzzing.

Once he successfully acquired the bones (after Mictlantecuhtli's attempts to get the bones back), the goddess Cihuacóatl ground them into powder and mixed in blood of the gods. (There is a second version that says the blood used was from Ehécatl's penis.)

The gods assembled at Teotihuacán, and "the [twin] gods Nanahuatzin and Tecuciztécatl [threw] themselves on to the sacrificial pyre and ascended into the sky and sun and moon, they hung motionless above the Earth [...] It was Ehécatl who initiated their movements. He blew on them with all the strength of his breath. At first, only the sun moved and the moon remained stationary, but when the sun set at last in the west the moon was drawn into his proper cycle, which complements that of the sun." (page 166)

Bringer of Rain

His breath made the Sun move and called upon the rain. Not only was Ehécatl the wind, but the very breath of life. Without the wind, the sun would not rise nor set, there would be no seasons, and no cycles for planting nor harvesting. His wind cleared the sky so clouds could come and rain could fall.

Because of this, Ehécatl earned the name 'The tláloques' road-sweeper' by the Aztecs - a reference to smaller rain gods who assisted Tláloc, the main rain deity.

"It was all part of the Aztecs' cosmological view that the rains were present in the Sky above because the Sea that lay at the far extremes of Earth curved up to join over it. The connection provided between the Earth and the Sky by Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl was necessary to provide a conduit or pathway by which the waters could return to Earth in the form of windblown rainclouds." (Phillips, p.167)

His Place of Worship

Pirámide de Ehécatl: the pyramid was unearthed during construction of the 

Metro station in 1967. © Melanie Magdalena

Ehécatl is portrayed in codices and sculptures wearing a duck-billed mask, open to show the tongue. The most famous statue was excavated in the Temple of Quetzalcóatl-Ehécatl in Calixtlahuaca (in the Toluca Valley).

In order to reduce wind resistance and increase circulation, temples built for Ehécatl were circular, or cylindrical, in shape and associated with the four cardinal points since wind comes and goes in all directions.

A circular temple to Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl reputedly stood opposite the great temple of the Aztecs in Tenochtitlán.

The Pyramid of Ehécatl [Pirámide de Ehécatl] was discovered while building the Metro in Mexico City. You can visit the pyramid at the Pino Suárez station; it is surrounded by the passageway between lines 1 & 2.

For Further Reading

Jones, David M. and Brian L. Molyneaux. Mythology of the American Nations - An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Gods, Heroes, Spirits, Sacred Places, Rituals & Ancient Beliefs of the North American Indian, Inuit, Aztec, Inca and Maya Nations. USA: Anness Publishing Ltd, 2004.


ISBN-10: 0681032685


Phillps, Charles. The Lost History of Aztec & Maya: The History, Legend, Myth and Culture of the Ancient Native Peoples of Mexico and Central America. USA: Hermes House, 2004.


ISBN-10: 1844775070

The Toltec Civilization was one of three great empires of the Basin of Mexico, after the fall of Teotihuacan and before the rise of the Aztecs. The capital was at Tula (a.k.a. Tollan), in the Valley of Mexico, was home to 40,000 to 60,000 people, Tula controlled most of central Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula, the Gulf coast, and perhaps even Chiapas. Although the Postclassic has become virtually synonymous with Aztec rule, central Mexico was Toltec domain with their influence spread throughout central and eastern Mexico during the Toltec heyday (about AD 900-1200).

The Tula archaeological site, 40 miles north of Mexico City, is best known for its nearly 15-foot-high stone warriors, which once served as columns supporting a pyramid. Structures worth seeing include the Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli Pyramid, Coatepantli (Serpent Wall) and the Burnt Palace. There is also a small museum. One of their notable inventions was the tzompantli, a wall adorned with the heads of sacrificial victims, particularly prisoners of war.

Tula, Hidalgo [commons.wikimedia.com]

The Toltec in Mesoamerican have been used in different ways by different scholars to refer to as a population of pre-Columbian central Mexico or to the mythical ancestors mentioned in the mythical/historical narratives of the Aztecs.

It is an ongoing debate whether the Toltecs were an actual ethnic group in Mesoamerican history or if they are only an Aztec myth. Amoung scholars, it is a debate whether the Aztec narratives of Toltec history should be given credence as descriptions of actual historical events. The scholars who have maintain that continued analysis of the narratives understood the Toltecs as an actual ethnic group and see the sources as actual history, and connect the Toltec to the archaeological site of Tula, Hidalgo, the supposed Tollan of Aztec myth.

Another controversy relating to the Toltecs are reasons behind similarities in architecture and iconography between the archaeological site of Tula and the Maya site of Chichén Itzá. There is no knowledge of influence between the two sites.

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.