Templo Mayor

The first of seven temples built on the Templo Mayor site was built in 1325, In 1454, the largest known expansion of the temple took place under the guidance of Moctezuma I. The seventh temple was first mentioned by the conquistadors in 1519, and the temple was last altered by the Aztecs in 1520. The conquistadors then sacked and destroyed the building one year later in 1521. ==Discovery and excavation==

which was found during construction in 1978 After the destruction of Tenōchtitlan, the Templo Mayor, like most of the rest of the city, was disassembled to be used as construction materials to create the Spanish colonial city. The Temple's exact location was forgotten. By the 20th century, scholars had a good idea where to look for it based on archeological work completed at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Leopoldo Batres did some excavation work at the end of the 19th century under the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral because, at the time, researchers thought the cathedral had been built over the ruins of the temple, though it was later proven to be just southwest of the temple. Efforts coalesced into the Templo Mayor Project, which was authorized by presidential decree. To complete the excavation, 13 buildings in this area were demolished including 9 built in the 1930s and 4 dating from the 19th century that had preserved colonial elements. During excavations, more than 7,000 objects were found, mostly offerings including effigies; clay pots in the image of Tlaloc; skeletons of turtles, frogs, crocodiles, and fish; snail shells; coral; gold; alabaster; Mixtec figurines; ceramic urns from Veracruz; masks from what is now Guerrero state; copper rattles; and decorated skulls and knives of obsidian and flint. These artifacts are now housed in the Templo Mayor Museum. This museum is the result of the work done since the early 1980s to rescue, preserve, and investigate Templo Mayor, its Sacred Precinct, and all objects associated with it while making these findings available to the public. ==Earlier versions==

The excavated site consists of two parts: 1) the temple itself, exposed and labeled to show its various stages of development, along with some other associated buildings, and 2) the museum, built to house the smaller and more fragile objects. First Temple The first temple is only known through historical records because the high water table of the old lakebed prevents excavation. Second Temple The second temple was built during the reigns of Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and Chimalpopoca between 1375 and 1427. The upper part of this temple has been excavated, exposing two stone shrines covered in stucco on the north side. A chacmool was uncovered as well. On the south side, there is a sacrificial stone called a and a sculpted face. Third Temple The third temple was built between 1427 and 1440 during the reign of Itzcoatl. A staircase with eight stone standard-bearers is from this stage bearing the glyph with the year Four-Reed (1431). These standard bearers act as "divine warriors" guarding the access to the upper shrines. Fourth Temple The fourth temple was constructed between 1440 and 1481 during the reigns of Moctezuma I and Axayacatl. This stage is considered to have the richest of the architectural decorations as well as sculptures. Most findings from the excavations date from this period. The great platform was decorated with serpents and braziers, some of which are in the form of monkeys and some in the form of Tlaloc. During this time, the stairway to the shrine of Tlaloc was defined by a pair of undulating serpents and the middle of this shrine was a small altar featuring a pair of sculpted frogs. The circular monolith of Coyolxauhqui also dates from this time. Fifth Temple The fifth temple (1481–1486) is dated to the short reign of Tizoc. During these five years, the platform was recovered in stucco and the ceremonial plaza was paved. Sixth Temple The sixth temple was built during the reign of Ahuizotl. He finished some of the updates made by Tizoc and added his own, as shown on the carvings of the "commemoration stone of the ", depicting the two tlatoqueh celebrating the opening of the temple during the last day of the month Panquetzaliztli dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, day 7 of the year 8 (19 December 1487). The Sacred Precinct was walled off, and this wall was decorated with serpent heads. He built three shrines and the House of the Eagle Warriors. ==Seventh Temple==

Zócalo station. Very little remains of the Seventh Temple because of the demolitions undertaken to build the cathedral. Only a platform to the north and a section of paving in the courtyard on the south side can still be seen. and each had large braziers where the sacred fires continuously burned. The entrance to each temple had statues of robust and seated men which supported the standard-bearers and banners of handmade bark paper. Each stairway was defined by balustrades flanking the stairs, terminating in menacing serpent heads at the base. These stairways were used only by the priests and sacrificial people. The entire building was originally covered with stucco and polychrome paint. The deities were housed inside the temple, shielded from the outside by curtains. The figure of Huitzilopochtli was modeled from amaranth seeds held together with honey and human blood. Inside of him were bags containing jade, bones, and amulets to give life to the god. This figure was constructed annually, and it was richly dressed and fitted with a mask of gold for his festival held during the Aztec month of Panquetzaliztli. At the end of the festival, the image was broken apart and shared among the populace to be eaten. While Cortes left for Veracruz to confront Spaniards looking to arrest him, Pedro de Alvarado, claiming to have uncovered a plot, staged a massacre of the Aztec nobility in the Sacred Precinct while they celebrated a religious festival. Unarmed and trapped within the walls of the Sacred Precinct, an estimated 8,000–10,000 Aztec nobles were killed. When word of the massacre spread throughout the city, the people turned on the Spaniards, killing seven, wounding many, and driving the rest back to their quarters. The Spaniards were trapped between two Aztec forces, and 68 were captured alive. Ten of these Spanish captives were immediately sacrificed at the Temple, and their severed heads were thrown back to the Spaniards. The others were sacrificed at the Great Temple that night, which could be seen from the Spanish camps. The sacrificed Spaniards were flayed, and their faces – with beards attached – were tanned and sent to allied towns, both to solicit assistance and to warn against betraying the Triple Alliance. The Spaniards were later temporarily evicted from the city but recruited allies to besiege and capture it in 1521. After the fall of Tenōchtitlan in 1521, the lands controlled by the Aztecs became part of the Spanish empire. All the temples, including the Templo Mayor, were sacked, taking all objects of gold and other precious materials. Cortés, who had ordered the destruction of the existing capital, had a Mediterranean-style city built on the site. Essential elements of the old imperial center, including the Templo Mayor, were buried under similarly key features of the new city in what is now the historical downtown of the Mexico City. The Templo Mayor and Sacred Precinct were demolished and a Spanish church, later the main cathedral, was built on the western half of the precinct. ==Orientation==

Fray Toribio de Motolinía, a Spanish friar who arrived to Mexico soon after the invasion, writes in his work Memoriales that the Aztec feast of Tlacaxipehualiztli "took place when the sun stood in the middle of [the Temple of] Huitzilopochtli, which was at the equinox". This statement has become very famous, as it is the only textual reference known so far that explicitly relates a Mesoamerican temple with astronomical observations. The measurements in the Templo Mayor confirmed the veracity of this comment. The orientation of stage II, the earliest of the archaeologically attested construction phases, is different from that adopted by stage III and preserved in all subsequent stages. One of the sunset dates corresponding to the east–west axis of the late stages, including the last, is 4 April, which in the Julian calendar of the 16th century was equivalent to 25 March. In 1519, this was the last day of Tlacaxipehualiztli, that is, precisely the day of the feast of the month. Furthermore, 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation, was in the Middle Ages commonly identified with the vernal equinox. Consequently, Motolinía did not refer to the astronomical equinox (the date of which would have hardly been known to a non-astronomer at that time), but rather only pointed out the correlation between the day of the Mexica festival, which in the last years before the invasion coincided with the solar phenomenon in the Templo Mayor, and the date in the Christian calendar that corresponded to the traditional day of spring equinox. ==Symbolism==

s as symbols of water According to tradition, the Templo Mayor is located on the exact spot where the god Huitzilopochtli gave the Mexica people his sign that they had reached the promised land: an eagle on a nopal cactus with a snake in its mouth. The sacred ballcourt and skull rack were located at the foot of the stairs of the twin temples, to mimic, like the stone disk, where Huitzilopochtli was said to have placed the goddess' severed head. These locations served as a place for the reenactment of the mythical conflict. Matos Moctezuma supports his supposition by claiming that the temple acts as an embodiment of a living myth where "all sacred power is concentrated and where all the levels intersect." Said myth is the birth and struggle between Huitzilopochtli and Coyolxauhqui. ==Sacred Precinct and surrounding buildings==

The Sacred Precinct of the Templo Mayor was surrounded by a wall called the "coatepantli" (serpent wall). Among the most important buildings were the ballcourt, the Calmecac (area for priests), and the temples dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and the sun. The Templo Mayor itself delineated the eastern side of the Sacred Precinct. A number of important artifacts have been found in this area, the most important of which are two nearly identical large ceramic sculptures of Mictlantecuhtl, the god of death. Despite being found in fragile pieces, they were both reconstructed and are on display at the on-site museum. Another conjoining area was dedicated to the Ocelot Warriors. Their temple, dedicated to the god Tezcatlipoca, lies under the current Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público to the south of the Templo Mayor. The Calmecac was a residence hall for priests and a school for future priests, administrators and politicians, where they studied theology, literature, history and astronomy. Its exact location is on one side of what is now Donceles Street. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl was located to the west of the Templo Mayor. It is said that during the equinox, the sun rose between the shrines dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc and shone directly on this temple. Due to the god's serpentine nature, the temple had a circular base instead of a rectangular one. The ball field, called the tlachtli or teutlachtli, was similar to many sacred ball fields in Mesoamerica. Games were played barefoot, and players used their hips to move a heavy ball to stone rings. The field was located west of the Templo Mayor, near the twin staircases and oriented east–west. Next to this ball field was the "huey tzompanti" where the skulls of sacrifice victims were kept after being covered in stucco and decorated. The Temple of the Sun was located west of the Templo Mayor also and its remains lie under the Metropolitan Cathedral. The project to shore up the cathedral at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st brought to light a number of artifacts. ==Offerings==

Most of the objects found in the Templo Mayor were offerings. Although many are of Mexica design, there are also abundant items from other peoples, brought in as tribute or through trade. Sculptures, flint knives, vessels, beads and other sumptuary ornaments—as well as minerals, plants and animals of all types, and the remains of human sacrifice—were among the items deposited in offerings. All of these fulfilled a specific function within the offering, depending on the symbolism of each object. In excavations at the Templo Mayor, different types of offerings have been found and have been grouped by researchers in terms of Time (the period in which the offering was deposited); Space (the location of the offering within the structure); Container (type and dimensions of the receptacle containing the objects); internal distribution (placement of objects within the offering) and value of the items. The offerings were usually contained in cavities, in stone urns, and in boxes made of slabs. These are found under floors; in platforms, architectural bodies, stairways and in temples. These offerings were placed accompanied by complex rituals following set temporal, spatial and symbolic patterns, depending on the intention of the offering. The oldest Mexica objects, located in the second temple, are two urns which contain the remains of incinerated bones; one of the urns was made of obsidian and the other of alabaster. A small silver mask and a gold bell were found inside one urn, and second gold bell and two green stone beads were placed in the other. Images of the gods Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli, together with Tlaloc, presided over most of the offerings found in the Templo Mayor. Representing fire and water respectively, this pair of deities probably symbolized the concept of "burning water," a metaphor for warfare. Another theme exhibited in this hall is autosacrifice, a ritual that was conducted in private as a personal act of communication with the gods. Widespread throughout the entire population, this practice was performed by perforating certain fleshy parts of the body—such as the earlobes, lips, tongue, chest, calves, et cetera—with obsidian blades, agave needles or bone perforators. Once the implement was covered with blood, it was inserted in straw balls called Zacatapayoli. The entirety was probably placed in ceremonial boxes—tepetlacalli—as an offering to the gods. Objects associated with human sacrifice are the "face blades" or knives decorated with eyes and teeth, as well as skull masks. Other ceremonial items include musical instruments, jewelry, and braziers for the burning of copal. ==Museum==

The museum of the Templo Mayor was built in 1987 to house the Templo Mayor Project and its finds—a project which continues work to this day. In 1991, the Urban Archeology Program was incorporated as part of the Templo Mayor Project whose mission is to excavate the oldest area of the city, around the main plaza. The museum has eight main exhibition halls, each dedicated to a different theme. Room 1 is dedicated to the goddesses Coatlicue and Coyolxauhqui, mother and sister to Huitzlipochtli, respectively. Here are displayed the first finds associated with the temple, from the first tentative finds in the 19th century to the discovery of the huge stone disk of Coyolxauhqui, which initiated the Templo Mayor Project. Medal awarded to Rigoberta Menchú is safeguarded in the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Room 2 is dedicated to the concepts of ritual and sacrifice in Tenōchtitlan. This room contains urns where dignitaries where interred, funerary offerings, as well as objects associated with self and human sacrifice—such as musical instruments, knives and skulls. Room 3 demonstrates the economics of the Aztec empire in the form of tribute and trade, with examples of finished products and raw materials from many parts of Mesoamerica. Room 4 is dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli. His shrine at the temple was the most important and largest. This room contains various images of him as well as offerings. Also located here are the two large ceramic statues of the god Mictlantecuhtli which were found in the House of the Eagle Warriors who were dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. Room 5 is dedicated to Tlaloc, the other principal deity of the Aztecs and one of the oldest in Mesoamerica. This room contains various images of the god usually worked in green or volcanic stone or in ceramic. The most prized work is a large pot with the god's face in high relief that still preserves much of the original blue paint. Room 6 is dedicated to the flora and fauna of Mesoamerica at this time, as most contained divine aspects for the Aztecs. Also many of the offerings found at the Templo Mayor were or were made from various plants and animals. Related to Room 6, Room 7 contains exhibits of the agricultural technology of the time, especially in the growing of corn and the construction of chinampas, the so-called "floating gardens". The last room is Room 8, which is dedicated to the archeology and history of the site. ==See also==