The Precinct of the Templo Mayor was an approximate square of 500 meters on each side (= 25 hectares) that was located in the center of the island of Tenochtitlán and where the three main roads converged towards the cardinal points: that of Ixtapalapa that went south and had a fork that led to Coyoacán; that of Tacuba that went to the West and that of Tepeyac that led to the North, one of its forks led to the city of Tlatelolco that would later be absorbed by Tenochtitlán.

Currently, the area that occupied the ceremonial site would border to the east with Correo Mayor Street, to the north with Luis González Obregón, to the west with Palma Street and to the south with the vehicular circuit that divides the Metropolitan Cathedral from the Zócalo.

Contenido

El Templo Mayor era la mayor estructura de la ciudad, ubicado en el centro ceremonial de la capital del imperio, en lo que fue el islote original de su fundación. En realidad era un templo doble, formado por la típica pirámide trunca, pero de doble escalinata y con un templete anexo en cada esquina frontal de su base, que tenía unos 42-45 metros de alto, y en su cima los dos templos, dedicado uno al culto de Tláloc, dios de la lluvia (al norte, con pintura azul), y el otro a Huitzilopochtli, dios de la guerra (al sur, con pintura roja).

Stages

The construction was carried out in seven stages and had four extensions, these successive constructions were stacked one on top of the other so that each one covered the previous one until reaching an approximate height of 45 meters.[8]​.

1. • Of the first stage, the original, there is no evidence left because it would have been built with perishable material.

2. • From the second stage we know that it is before 1428 and we know its upper part well, the two shrines at the top have been found as well as a chac-mool in front of the Tláloc shrine and a sacrificial stone in front of that of Huitzilopochtli. In addition, mural paintings from the Tláloc shrine are preserved.

On the other hand, on the last step in front of the sacrificial stone there is a glyph that, if it were a numeral, would date this layer to the year 1390.

3. • The third stage is dated 1431 (4 cane) of the reign of Emperor Itzcóatl, the stairs are preserved as well as part of the pavement.

4. • From the fourth stage, around 1454 with Moctezuma I, numerous non-architectural elements have been found, it was completely surrounded by braziers with attributions to Tláloc and Huitzilopochtli. The fourth layer was expanded at the front with a platform adorned with undulating snakes, the rafters of the staircase also end with snakes. Furthermore, at the base of the Huitzilopochtli temple, a stone disc with a relief from Coyolxauhqui was discovered, which germinated the desire to begin excavations of the temple.

The expansion may date from the reign of Axayácatl.

5. • The fifth stage only left the general plastered platform and part of the ceremonial floor. It would date from approximately 1470.

6. • The sixth stage was built around 1500 and part of the main façade remains with a wall with three snake heads.

7. • Finally, the seventh is dated between 1500 and 1521, it is the one that the first Spaniards contemplated and of them the flagstone floor "Laja (rock)") of the ceremonial enclosure is barely preserved.

Aquí se muestra una lista de los edificios en el Centro Ceremonial. Los nombres designan, más que edificios concretos y singulares, las distintas categorías de edificios existentes, lo que se comprueba al constatar que hay varios cuauhxicalli o varios tzompantli. Por la misma razón encontramos los mismos nombres en el recinto existente en Tlatelolco o en otras ciudades:.

Algunos edificios poseen nombres castellanizados o son parte de los anteriormente mencionados, los cuales se encuentran en la lista siguiente:[13]​.

1. • Casa de las águilas. Probablemente era un Cuauhxicalli.

2. • Templo Rojo del Norte o el Edificio C. Xochipilli.

3. • Templo Rojo del Sur o el Edificio F. Xochipilli.

4. • Xochiquétzal.

5. • Chicomecóatl.

6. • Templo de Ehécatl.

7. • Calmécac. Era la escuela para los hijos de los nobles aztecas.

8. • Tozpalatl.

9. • Tonatiuh.

The Tlacatecco

We have clarified above that it is not the proper name of a specific singular construction but rather a category that defines a certain type of building or temple. It is the main temple, dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli[14]​ and by extension to the emperor.

In pre-Hispanic Mexico there was a political system that we can classify as a Theocracy in which political power (or sovereignty) resided in the person of the emperor, who was called tlacateuctli or tlahtoani.

Although the word tlahtoani can be translated as sovereign,[15]​ the word tlacateuctli refers to the emperor. This is how Alfonso Caso uses it.

The fact that Rémi Simeon collects the tlacatecco as a temple dedicated to the solar god Huitzilopochtli gives us a clear idea that the tlacateuctli (the emperor) was considered an authentic god. The very etymology of the word, which means living god, makes its divine nature clear. The holder of power exercised his right to govern based on said condition.

The compound term tlaca-teuctli indicates that it was a teuctli (a god), as was the Mictlanteuctli (god of hell or Mictlan), the Xiuhteuctli (god of fire)... The preposition of the word tlacatl indicates that it was a god, but also a living being in human form. We find it in the word cihua tlacamichin which means mermaid (serena for Fray Alonso de Molina) and refers to a being that is half fish and half living being in human form.

The names of the Aztec emperors made metaphorical reference to the sun, a divinity that they identified with Huitzilopochtli. Thus Cuauhtemoctzin, which means Falling Eagle, Chimalpohpoca (Chimalpopoca), which means Smoking Shield, or Cuitlahuactzin, which means thirsty (where the prefix cuitla- does not derive from cuitlatl but from cuitlatecomatl).

The Templo Mayor stands where legend says that the solar god in the shape of an eagle attacks the snake on a cactus. If the snake represents the captive, the eagle represents the solar god. Or what is the same, the emperor resorts to war to take captives. His warrior supremacy finds justification in legend.

It is important to highlight the double condition of the emperor (god and man) in the Aztec religion to understand what exactly the main temple meant, what was the relationship that occurred with Hernán Cortés (to whom, like him, Motecuhzomatzin (Moctezuma) attributed a divine condition when confusing him with Quetzalcóatl, what was the relationship with the priests who came to impose a faith based on a single and true god and why the Spanish destroyed the most traces highlights of Mexican culture.

The first Franciscans who came to Mexico came from a Spain where Emperor Charles I of Spain was not considered a living god. The idea could even be considered blasphemous. It is true that in Europe there were tensions between the power of the papacy and the power of the different kings, so the priests were determined to cut off any idea that could undermine the power of the papacy.

Brother Jerónimo de Mendieta dealt with this topic:

It seems that the Spanish could not afford to keep standing a building that proclaimed the deity of the Aztec emperor and in which he cemented his superior political and religious power over any other earthly authority.

Temple of Ehecatl

Like many other temples dedicated to Ehécatl, who was the god of the wind and was considered one of the forms of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcóatl, it has a circular structure oriented towards the main temple with a possible height of up to 32 meters high that dates from 1486-1502 located between Guatemala Street, behind the Metropolitan Cathedral. The plan of its platform consists of a circle with a rectangle attached to the front, while the plan of the temple itself was circular with around 14 meters in diameter and closed with a conical roof "Cone (geometry)") crowned with battlements.

The Temple of Ehécatl was located in a privileged position, it was in front of the Main Temple. Some sources consider that, like, for example, the pyramid of Chichén Itzá in which one of the snakes on the packsaddles was illuminated during the equinox, perhaps there was also some play of light: since the Temple of Ehécatl faced the East, to the east, when the Sun rose the light would pass between the two shrines of the Templo Mayor. It is documented that its platform contained a single staircase with sixty steps.

Its entrance had the shape of snake jaws and other various decorative elements, such as large pots according to the chronicles of the century by Bernal Díaz del Castillo. It is also important to remember that Ehécatl "is a wind deity, whose function was to cause air currents to help the rain gods, Tláloc and Tlaloques."[17]​.

After the surrender of Cuauhtémoc, on August 13, 1521 and given the cultural and economic importance that Mexico-Tenochtitlan represented, Hernán Cortés decided to establish the recently fallen Mexica city as the new capital of the later known New Spain.[18]​ With the subsequent destruction of the Aztec buildings to make way for the establishment of the temples and palaces of the conquerors, the destruction of the Templo Mayor, the center of the worldview of the Mexica people, was a key step in the ideological and spiritual conquest that followed and accompanied the military conquest.[18]​[19]​.

According to the chronicles of the conquest, since their arrival Cortés and his soldiers tried to persuade the natives in favor of Christianity, also claiming the temples where they venerated their gods, hence the emphasis on building churches over the destroyed temples.[20]​.

In relation to the destruction of Templo Mayor, Bernal Díaz del Castillo declares in chapter LXXVI in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain:[21]​.

In this regard, Brother Toribio de Motolinía recounts how the new New Spain city was laid out:[22]​.

In this way, the Spanish urban plan began to progressively replace the traces of the old Mexica capital.[23]​.

During the New Spain period and later, many pre-Hispanic vestiges were discovered, since 1790 there was the discovery of Coatlicue, shortly afterward was the discovery of the Stone of the Sun, this is one of the bases for calculating its location, also, based on the chronicles and documentary testimonies Alfredo Chavero had proposed in the century its location at the crossroads of the main avenues of the ancient city.[24]​ The first excavations in the area adjacent to the Templo Mayor were made by Manuel Gamio in the year 1913 after the demolition of a building in Seminario and Santa Teresa (today the Republic of Guatemala).[25]​.

Between May 6 and 16, 1914, Gamio discovered part of the southwest corner of Stage III, confirming the location of the main Mexica ceremonial enclosure. He suspected said location based on this culture and that it should not be missing from the enclosure. Manuel always knew that he had not discovered the temple as such, but if he suspected that it was the enclosures of Huitzilopochtli and Tláloc, some time later his suspicion would be confirmed, this because skulls were found (with which the enclosure of both gods was decorated), he deduced that the Great Temple must be under the modern houses of that time and he wanted to check it, the problem was that he could not because people were not willing to vacate their residences and/or jobs just to help science, for which by January 1915 the excavations were interrupted. Gamio's work was resumed approximately (exact data has not been found) in November 1915, to prevent the surrounding houses or the temple from collapsing, always avoiding the inconvenience of the people who lived nearby.

Manuel made sure that both national and foreign people were allowed access to the archaeological discovery while the excavations continued in 1916. From April of that year to the present, a record of people who attend is kept. Something that Gamio was characterized by was that he always asked for protection for the archaeological remains found, he was concerned about the recovery and conservation of the temple.

The archaeological zone was discovered on February 21, 1978, by a group of workers from the Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro, led by Eng. Felipe Curcó Bellet"), who were carrying out excavation work in order to lay underground subway cables. When lowering the floor level, one of the workers hit a circular stone with reliefs. He immediately contacted Eng. Curcó, who in turn contacted Eduardo Matos Moctezuma at the INAH. The stone was a representation of the goddess of the moon (Coyolxauhqui), it was located on the right staircase of the pyramid of the main temple, which was the Aztec ceremonial center. Later excavations rescued a large part of the temple and the ceremonial enclosure that surrounded it, which was buried northeast of the Plaza de la Constitución "Plaza de la Constitución (Mexico City)") under the streets of Guatemala and Argentina, and was believed to have been lost since colonial times, after the conquest of Mexico, since Hernán Cortés ordered the use of its materials to build another city in its place, since he also had to put an end to cults outside the Catholic religion.

The discovery aroused great interest in the then president José López Portillo, beginning one of the most interesting milestones in the history of Mexican archeology since it brought together archaeologists, restorers, chemists, geologists, biologists and other specialists in order to study the vestiges of the past that had been discovered completely by chance.

[26]​.

The interpretation of the meaning of this complex must be understood based on Mesoamerican religious conceptions in general and then in the light of the Aztecs in particular due to the mixture of elements from other cultures that are present in the place.

In Mesoamerican cosmography, each cardinal point had a meaning: thus the world had the shape of a square divided into four parts and whose center was the axis of the universe, as we can determine in the first plate of the Fejérváry-Mayer Codex. The same in the Mendoza Codex, which symbolically represents Tenochtitlán in the center with the image of its glyph, the eagle on the cactus, representing both Huitzilopochtli (who ordered the founding of the city) and his sanctuary. Both sanctuaries on the summit would correspond to the last level of the Aztec heavens; Omeyocan (that is, the "place of duality"; see Ometeotl).

Certain characteristics of the building are associated with the original Aztec myth about the birth of their tribal god Huitzilopochtli on the Coatepec hill (from Nahua: Mountain of the snakes). In this myth, the "miraculous" pregnancy of the mother goddess Coatlicue infuriates her daughter Coyolxauhqui and her four hundred children, the Centzon Huitznahua. When they decide to kill their mother, she will give birth on the same summit of Coatepec to Huitzilopochtli who dismembers his sister and throws the pieces down the mountain. Then he chases his brothers and exterminates them. The Huitzilopochtli shrine at the top of the Templo Mayor would symbolize Coatepec. Thus we understand the presence at the foot of the stairs that led to the summit of the famous sculpture that represents a dismembered Coyolxauhqui. When a victim was sacrificed at the top of the temple, his body was thrown down the stairs, as a symbolic repetition of the myth.

Furthermore, on the other hand, the Templo Mayor would quench the thirst for legitimacy of the Aztec people: certain authors consider that this tribe that had recently arrived on the scene of the Valley of Mexico suffered a kind of "inferiority complex" due to its inferior cultural development with respect to the conquered civilizations and therefore they wanted to appear as successors of the great Mesoamerican civilizations, whose ruins were still under their feet, such as those of Teotihuacán and those of the Toltecs; For this, for example, they buried masks under the Templo Mayor that they extracted from the ruins of Teotihuacán and also imitated architectural details such as the talud-tablero profile of Teotihuacán or the Chac Mool of Tula).

The finish of the Great Temple was that of a double pyramid: double staircase and two sanctuaries at its summit. According to Ester Pasztory, this architectural form, present in other places, allowed the Aztecs to associate their tribal god, Huitzilopochtli, with a main deity of the Mesoamerican pantheon, the god of rain, Tláloc. In this binomial rich in symbology, some see the association of the small nomadic tribe recently arrived in the Valley of Mexico with the ancient sedentary populations of the central plateau. The Mexican archaeologist Matos Moctezuma also sees there the sacralized expression of two economic functions: Huitzilopochtli directs the war that allows tribute to be obtained from the defeated, while Tláloc directs agricultural activities. We can also see there the association of the arid North represented by Huitzilopochtli and the origin of the Aztec tribe; and the humid and aquatic East represented by Tláloc.

The Templo Mayor was the place par excellence for cardiotomies, human sacrifice in its most common form, which was the removal of the heart. The Aztec myth of the Fifth Sun explains this practice: the universe is unstable because it depends on the continuity of the sun's movement and would be destroyed if it stopped, which is why men must continually imitate the gods who sacrificed themselves in Teotihuacán so that the sun would set in motion. Although human sacrifice always existed in Mesoamerica, we can ask ourselves why it took on such a crude character among the Aztecs: according to chroniclers, in 1487 between 3,000 and 84,000 people were sacrificed during the four days of the reconsecration of the Great Temple in the reign of Ahuízotl "Ahuízotl (ruler)"), although these figures seem exaggerated to certain authors due to the technical difficulty of killing so many. people in such a short time.[27]​.

One of the most widespread theories to explain this catastrophe is the ideological shift that took place during a gigantic famine around 1450. The idea is attributed to Tlacaélel that it was due to the anger of the gods because they were not sufficiently supplied with human blood, which the Aztecs designated with a metaphor: "Chalchiuatl" ('precious water'). In order to ensure this supply of victims, they invented the institution of "flower wars", a form of ritual warfare where instead of killing they attempted to capture enemy warriors to sacrifice them.

Another theory ( ) states that human sacrifice was imprinted on the Aztec culture, because these people had a deep fear that the fifth sun would truly cease to exist, since the experience of the disappearance of the previous cycle of cultures, represented in the extinction of the four previous suns, had been imprinted in their cosmogonic memory. Therefore, each human sacrifice actually constituted a voluntary sacro-office; a magical act that prolongs human life on earth, the tlalticpac. How did this true horror of the cosmic catastrophe become imprinted on Aztec culture? Ferrer himself (2015) points out in his theory that the Aztecs actually "are part of the rest of the Atlanteans", the same ones spoken of in the Critias "Critias (dialogue)") and the Timaeus "Timaeus (dialogue)"), who managed to survive the great cosmic hecatomb caused by the fragmented impact of the comet Clovis in North America, about 12 thousand years ago.

In the work Memoriales by Fray Toribio de Benavente or Motolinía, from the 19th century, there is a comment that is related to the Templo Mayor and that became very famous, since it seems to be the only documentary reference that explicitly relates a Mesoamerican temple with astronomical observations. There we read that the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli "fell when the sun was in the middle of Uchilobos, which was the equinox."[28] Measurements in the Templo Mayor confirmed the veracity of this comment. The orientation of stage II, the earliest of those archaeologically attested, manifests a different orientation from that adopted by stage III and which was preserved in all subsequent stages. One of the sunset dates that correspond to the east-west axis of the late stages, including the last, is April 4, which in the Julian calendar of the century was equivalent to March 25. In 1519, this was the last day of Tlacaxipehualiztli, that is, precisely the day of the month's festival.[29] On the other hand, March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, in medieval Europe was commonly identified with the vernal equinox. That is, Motolinía did not refer to the astronomical equinox (of whose date someone not specialized in astronomy at that time would hardly have been aware), but only noted the correlation observed between the day of the Mexica festival, which in the last years before the Conquest coincided with the solar phenomenon in the Templo Mayor, and the date of the Christian calendar that corresponded to the traditional day of the equinox.[30]​.

In 1987, the Templo Mayor Museum was built, annexed to the temple itself, and which was inaugurated on October 12 of that same year. It is the work of Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Jorge Ramírez Campuzano. The route of this museum begins in a perimeter corridor of the archaeological zone, and goes inside it in order to observe the different construction stages of the same, as well as the adjacent buildings visible today after the successive excavations after 1978. Once this route through the visible area is finished, you reach the museum building.

This property has inscriptions on its walls. The first, from the Mexican Songs, and below it, a fragment by Bernal Díaz del Castillo corresponding to the True History of the Conquest of New Spain.

The museum has 8 rooms and thousands of pre-Columbian objects are exhibited that come from more than 110 offerings discovered in the temple. Investigation of the temple and its objects continues.

Entre las salas del Museo se encuentra la de los Dioses Huitzilopochtli y Tláloc. Aquí se muestran las 8 salas que pertenecen al Museo del Templo Mayor:.

1. • Antecedentes Arqueológicos.

2. • Ritual y Sacrificio.

3. • Tributo y Comercio.

4. • Huitzilopochtli.

5. • Tláloc.

6. • Flora y Fauna.

7. • Agricultura.

8. • Periodos colonial y moderno.

Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli or "Left-Handed Hummingbird" is the god of war, solar devotion and patron of the Mexica. Under his tutelage, this town became the most powerful in Mesoamerica during the Postclassic period. He was the son of Coatlicue, brother of Coyolxauhqui, the Moon, and of the stars, the Centzonhuitznahua, all of them gods of Mexica inspiration. Its relevant location in the Templo Mayor shows the importance that Huitzilopochtli represented for the Mexica: war and tribute as part of economic support.

In this room various objects related to Huitzilopochtli are exhibited. Among them, the sculpture known as the “Eagle Warrior” stands out, found in La Casa de las Águilas, a religious building located north of the Templo Mayor. The studies of Dr. Leonardo López Luján give another interpretation to these figures, calling them Eagle Man, which represents the rising sun, or the Tlatoani who is born after his election as ruler. Likewise, the representation of the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, stands out among the pieces exhibited.

Tlaloc

At this point we are halfway through our tour of the Templo Mayor Museum: in the agricultural world, of the fertility of the land along with its economic implications that allowed man to feed and in which many deities presided over by Tláloc intervened.

The god Tláloc, "he who makes sprouts", was the representation of deified water and the fertilizer of the earth, who resided in the highest mountains where clouds are formed. He was a benevolent deity who also had his negative side by sending lightning, frost, floods and hail, all of which could destroy crops. His most important shrine was located in the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlán, next to Huitzilopochtli and his cult was very important since the sustenance of agricultural societies depended on it. The sacrifice of children (mostly sick) was generally dedicated to Tlaloc, due to their physical similarity to the tlaloque, small-bodied gods, assistants of this numen.

This impressive monolithic relief was located on October 2, 2006, in the area of ​​the property that occupies the corner of Guatemala and Argentina, in front of the Templo Mayor. It is a piece carved from lamprobolite andesite, an extrusive volcanic rock with pinkish and violet hues. Its large dimensions make it a spectacular piece, since it measures 4.17 by 3.62 m and reaches a weight of 12 tons.

The quality of the carving is extremely refined. You can notice details such as curly hair, typical of the divinities of darkness, the earth and the underworld. On his face you can see crescent-shaped eyes, a wide nose, and circles on his cheeks, a fleshless mouth and prominent ears adorned with circular jewels from which tala panels hang, all of them distinctive of the earth deity. A circular incision is sculpted on its belly from which a flow of blood flows towards its mouth, distinguishing within said incision two small feet wearing sandals, possibly remains of a lost image of a god or ruler.[31]​.

• - Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

• - Fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

• - Aztec Empire.

• - Aztecs.

• - Historic center of Mexico City.

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• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Major Temple.

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• - Site of the Templo Mayor Museum.

• - Templo Mayor DFinitivo.com.

The Precinct of the Templo Mayor was an approximate square of 500 meters on each side (= 25 hectares) that was located in the center of the island of Tenochtitlán and where the three main roads converged towards the cardinal points: that of Ixtapalapa that went south and had a fork that led to Coyoacán; that of Tacuba that went to the West and that of Tepeyac that led to the North, one of its forks led to the city of Tlatelolco that would later be absorbed by Tenochtitlán.

Currently, the area that occupied the ceremonial site would border to the east with Correo Mayor Street, to the north with Luis González Obregón, to the west with Palma Street and to the south with the vehicular circuit that divides the Metropolitan Cathedral from the Zócalo.

Contenido

El Templo Mayor era la mayor estructura de la ciudad, ubicado en el centro ceremonial de la capital del imperio, en lo que fue el islote original de su fundación. En realidad era un templo doble, formado por la típica pirámide trunca, pero de doble escalinata y con un templete anexo en cada esquina frontal de su base, que tenía unos 42-45 metros de alto, y en su cima los dos templos, dedicado uno al culto de Tláloc, dios de la lluvia (al norte, con pintura azul), y el otro a Huitzilopochtli, dios de la guerra (al sur, con pintura roja).

Stages

The construction was carried out in seven stages and had four extensions, these successive constructions were stacked one on top of the other so that each one covered the previous one until reaching an approximate height of 45 meters.[8]​.

1. • Of the first stage, the original, there is no evidence left because it would have been built with perishable material.

2. • From the second stage we know that it is before 1428 and we know its upper part well, the two shrines at the top have been found as well as a chac-mool in front of the Tláloc shrine and a sacrificial stone in front of that of Huitzilopochtli. In addition, mural paintings from the Tláloc shrine are preserved.

On the other hand, on the last step in front of the sacrificial stone there is a glyph that, if it were a numeral, would date this layer to the year 1390.

3. • The third stage is dated 1431 (4 cane) of the reign of Emperor Itzcóatl, the stairs are preserved as well as part of the pavement.

4. • From the fourth stage, around 1454 with Moctezuma I, numerous non-architectural elements have been found, it was completely surrounded by braziers with attributions to Tláloc and Huitzilopochtli. The fourth layer was expanded at the front with a platform adorned with undulating snakes, the rafters of the staircase also end with snakes. Furthermore, at the base of the Huitzilopochtli temple, a stone disc with a relief from Coyolxauhqui was discovered, which germinated the desire to begin excavations of the temple.

The expansion may date from the reign of Axayácatl.

5. • The fifth stage only left the general plastered platform and part of the ceremonial floor. It would date from approximately 1470.

6. • The sixth stage was built around 1500 and part of the main façade remains with a wall with three snake heads.

7. • Finally, the seventh is dated between 1500 and 1521, it is the one that the first Spaniards contemplated and of them the flagstone floor "Laja (rock)") of the ceremonial enclosure is barely preserved.

Aquí se muestra una lista de los edificios en el Centro Ceremonial. Los nombres designan, más que edificios concretos y singulares, las distintas categorías de edificios existentes, lo que se comprueba al constatar que hay varios cuauhxicalli o varios tzompantli. Por la misma razón encontramos los mismos nombres en el recinto existente en Tlatelolco o en otras ciudades:.

Algunos edificios poseen nombres castellanizados o son parte de los anteriormente mencionados, los cuales se encuentran en la lista siguiente:[13]​.

1. • Casa de las águilas. Probablemente era un Cuauhxicalli.

2. • Templo Rojo del Norte o el Edificio C. Xochipilli.

3. • Templo Rojo del Sur o el Edificio F. Xochipilli.

4. • Xochiquétzal.

5. • Chicomecóatl.

6. • Templo de Ehécatl.

7. • Calmécac. Era la escuela para los hijos de los nobles aztecas.

8. • Tozpalatl.

9. • Tonatiuh.

The Tlacatecco

We have clarified above that it is not the proper name of a specific singular construction but rather a category that defines a certain type of building or temple. It is the main temple, dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli[14]​ and by extension to the emperor.

In pre-Hispanic Mexico there was a political system that we can classify as a Theocracy in which political power (or sovereignty) resided in the person of the emperor, who was called tlacateuctli or tlahtoani.

Although the word tlahtoani can be translated as sovereign,[15]​ the word tlacateuctli refers to the emperor. This is how Alfonso Caso uses it.

The fact that Rémi Simeon collects the tlacatecco as a temple dedicated to the solar god Huitzilopochtli gives us a clear idea that the tlacateuctli (the emperor) was considered an authentic god. The very etymology of the word, which means living god, makes its divine nature clear. The holder of power exercised his right to govern based on said condition.

The compound term tlaca-teuctli indicates that it was a teuctli (a god), as was the Mictlanteuctli (god of hell or Mictlan), the Xiuhteuctli (god of fire)... The preposition of the word tlacatl indicates that it was a god, but also a living being in human form. We find it in the word cihua tlacamichin which means mermaid (serena for Fray Alonso de Molina) and refers to a being that is half fish and half living being in human form.

The names of the Aztec emperors made metaphorical reference to the sun, a divinity that they identified with Huitzilopochtli. Thus Cuauhtemoctzin, which means Falling Eagle, Chimalpohpoca (Chimalpopoca), which means Smoking Shield, or Cuitlahuactzin, which means thirsty (where the prefix cuitla- does not derive from cuitlatl but from cuitlatecomatl).

The Templo Mayor stands where legend says that the solar god in the shape of an eagle attacks the snake on a cactus. If the snake represents the captive, the eagle represents the solar god. Or what is the same, the emperor resorts to war to take captives. His warrior supremacy finds justification in legend.

It is important to highlight the double condition of the emperor (god and man) in the Aztec religion to understand what exactly the main temple meant, what was the relationship that occurred with Hernán Cortés (to whom, like him, Motecuhzomatzin (Moctezuma) attributed a divine condition when confusing him with Quetzalcóatl, what was the relationship with the priests who came to impose a faith based on a single and true god and why the Spanish destroyed the most traces highlights of Mexican culture.

The first Franciscans who came to Mexico came from a Spain where Emperor Charles I of Spain was not considered a living god. The idea could even be considered blasphemous. It is true that in Europe there were tensions between the power of the papacy and the power of the different kings, so the priests were determined to cut off any idea that could undermine the power of the papacy.

Brother Jerónimo de Mendieta dealt with this topic:

It seems that the Spanish could not afford to keep standing a building that proclaimed the deity of the Aztec emperor and in which he cemented his superior political and religious power over any other earthly authority.

Temple of Ehecatl

Like many other temples dedicated to Ehécatl, who was the god of the wind and was considered one of the forms of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcóatl, it has a circular structure oriented towards the main temple with a possible height of up to 32 meters high that dates from 1486-1502 located between Guatemala Street, behind the Metropolitan Cathedral. The plan of its platform consists of a circle with a rectangle attached to the front, while the plan of the temple itself was circular with around 14 meters in diameter and closed with a conical roof "Cone (geometry)") crowned with battlements.

The Temple of Ehécatl was located in a privileged position, it was in front of the Main Temple. Some sources consider that, like, for example, the pyramid of Chichén Itzá in which one of the snakes on the packsaddles was illuminated during the equinox, perhaps there was also some play of light: since the Temple of Ehécatl faced the East, to the east, when the Sun rose the light would pass between the two shrines of the Templo Mayor. It is documented that its platform contained a single staircase with sixty steps.

Its entrance had the shape of snake jaws and other various decorative elements, such as large pots according to the chronicles of the century by Bernal Díaz del Castillo. It is also important to remember that Ehécatl "is a wind deity, whose function was to cause air currents to help the rain gods, Tláloc and Tlaloques."[17]​.

After the surrender of Cuauhtémoc, on August 13, 1521 and given the cultural and economic importance that Mexico-Tenochtitlan represented, Hernán Cortés decided to establish the recently fallen Mexica city as the new capital of the later known New Spain.[18]​ With the subsequent destruction of the Aztec buildings to make way for the establishment of the temples and palaces of the conquerors, the destruction of the Templo Mayor, the center of the worldview of the Mexica people, was a key step in the ideological and spiritual conquest that followed and accompanied the military conquest.[18]​[19]​.

According to the chronicles of the conquest, since their arrival Cortés and his soldiers tried to persuade the natives in favor of Christianity, also claiming the temples where they venerated their gods, hence the emphasis on building churches over the destroyed temples.[20]​.

In relation to the destruction of Templo Mayor, Bernal Díaz del Castillo declares in chapter LXXVI in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain:[21]​.

In this regard, Brother Toribio de Motolinía recounts how the new New Spain city was laid out:[22]​.

In this way, the Spanish urban plan began to progressively replace the traces of the old Mexica capital.[23]​.

During the New Spain period and later, many pre-Hispanic vestiges were discovered, since 1790 there was the discovery of Coatlicue, shortly afterward was the discovery of the Stone of the Sun, this is one of the bases for calculating its location, also, based on the chronicles and documentary testimonies Alfredo Chavero had proposed in the century its location at the crossroads of the main avenues of the ancient city.[24]​ The first excavations in the area adjacent to the Templo Mayor were made by Manuel Gamio in the year 1913 after the demolition of a building in Seminario and Santa Teresa (today the Republic of Guatemala).[25]​.

Between May 6 and 16, 1914, Gamio discovered part of the southwest corner of Stage III, confirming the location of the main Mexica ceremonial enclosure. He suspected said location based on this culture and that it should not be missing from the enclosure. Manuel always knew that he had not discovered the temple as such, but if he suspected that it was the enclosures of Huitzilopochtli and Tláloc, some time later his suspicion would be confirmed, this because skulls were found (with which the enclosure of both gods was decorated), he deduced that the Great Temple must be under the modern houses of that time and he wanted to check it, the problem was that he could not because people were not willing to vacate their residences and/or jobs just to help science, for which by January 1915 the excavations were interrupted. Gamio's work was resumed approximately (exact data has not been found) in November 1915, to prevent the surrounding houses or the temple from collapsing, always avoiding the inconvenience of the people who lived nearby.

Manuel made sure that both national and foreign people were allowed access to the archaeological discovery while the excavations continued in 1916. From April of that year to the present, a record of people who attend is kept. Something that Gamio was characterized by was that he always asked for protection for the archaeological remains found, he was concerned about the recovery and conservation of the temple.

The archaeological zone was discovered on February 21, 1978, by a group of workers from the Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro, led by Eng. Felipe Curcó Bellet"), who were carrying out excavation work in order to lay underground subway cables. When lowering the floor level, one of the workers hit a circular stone with reliefs. He immediately contacted Eng. Curcó, who in turn contacted Eduardo Matos Moctezuma at the INAH. The stone was a representation of the goddess of the moon (Coyolxauhqui), it was located on the right staircase of the pyramid of the main temple, which was the Aztec ceremonial center. Later excavations rescued a large part of the temple and the ceremonial enclosure that surrounded it, which was buried northeast of the Plaza de la Constitución "Plaza de la Constitución (Mexico City)") under the streets of Guatemala and Argentina, and was believed to have been lost since colonial times, after the conquest of Mexico, since Hernán Cortés ordered the use of its materials to build another city in its place, since he also had to put an end to cults outside the Catholic religion.

The discovery aroused great interest in the then president José López Portillo, beginning one of the most interesting milestones in the history of Mexican archeology since it brought together archaeologists, restorers, chemists, geologists, biologists and other specialists in order to study the vestiges of the past that had been discovered completely by chance.

[26]​.

The interpretation of the meaning of this complex must be understood based on Mesoamerican religious conceptions in general and then in the light of the Aztecs in particular due to the mixture of elements from other cultures that are present in the place.

In Mesoamerican cosmography, each cardinal point had a meaning: thus the world had the shape of a square divided into four parts and whose center was the axis of the universe, as we can determine in the first plate of the Fejérváry-Mayer Codex. The same in the Mendoza Codex, which symbolically represents Tenochtitlán in the center with the image of its glyph, the eagle on the cactus, representing both Huitzilopochtli (who ordered the founding of the city) and his sanctuary. Both sanctuaries on the summit would correspond to the last level of the Aztec heavens; Omeyocan (that is, the "place of duality"; see Ometeotl).

Certain characteristics of the building are associated with the original Aztec myth about the birth of their tribal god Huitzilopochtli on the Coatepec hill (from Nahua: Mountain of the snakes). In this myth, the "miraculous" pregnancy of the mother goddess Coatlicue infuriates her daughter Coyolxauhqui and her four hundred children, the Centzon Huitznahua. When they decide to kill their mother, she will give birth on the same summit of Coatepec to Huitzilopochtli who dismembers his sister and throws the pieces down the mountain. Then he chases his brothers and exterminates them. The Huitzilopochtli shrine at the top of the Templo Mayor would symbolize Coatepec. Thus we understand the presence at the foot of the stairs that led to the summit of the famous sculpture that represents a dismembered Coyolxauhqui. When a victim was sacrificed at the top of the temple, his body was thrown down the stairs, as a symbolic repetition of the myth.

Furthermore, on the other hand, the Templo Mayor would quench the thirst for legitimacy of the Aztec people: certain authors consider that this tribe that had recently arrived on the scene of the Valley of Mexico suffered a kind of "inferiority complex" due to its inferior cultural development with respect to the conquered civilizations and therefore they wanted to appear as successors of the great Mesoamerican civilizations, whose ruins were still under their feet, such as those of Teotihuacán and those of the Toltecs; For this, for example, they buried masks under the Templo Mayor that they extracted from the ruins of Teotihuacán and also imitated architectural details such as the talud-tablero profile of Teotihuacán or the Chac Mool of Tula).

The finish of the Great Temple was that of a double pyramid: double staircase and two sanctuaries at its summit. According to Ester Pasztory, this architectural form, present in other places, allowed the Aztecs to associate their tribal god, Huitzilopochtli, with a main deity of the Mesoamerican pantheon, the god of rain, Tláloc. In this binomial rich in symbology, some see the association of the small nomadic tribe recently arrived in the Valley of Mexico with the ancient sedentary populations of the central plateau. The Mexican archaeologist Matos Moctezuma also sees there the sacralized expression of two economic functions: Huitzilopochtli directs the war that allows tribute to be obtained from the defeated, while Tláloc directs agricultural activities. We can also see there the association of the arid North represented by Huitzilopochtli and the origin of the Aztec tribe; and the humid and aquatic East represented by Tláloc.

The Templo Mayor was the place par excellence for cardiotomies, human sacrifice in its most common form, which was the removal of the heart. The Aztec myth of the Fifth Sun explains this practice: the universe is unstable because it depends on the continuity of the sun's movement and would be destroyed if it stopped, which is why men must continually imitate the gods who sacrificed themselves in Teotihuacán so that the sun would set in motion. Although human sacrifice always existed in Mesoamerica, we can ask ourselves why it took on such a crude character among the Aztecs: according to chroniclers, in 1487 between 3,000 and 84,000 people were sacrificed during the four days of the reconsecration of the Great Temple in the reign of Ahuízotl "Ahuízotl (ruler)"), although these figures seem exaggerated to certain authors due to the technical difficulty of killing so many. people in such a short time.[27]​.

One of the most widespread theories to explain this catastrophe is the ideological shift that took place during a gigantic famine around 1450. The idea is attributed to Tlacaélel that it was due to the anger of the gods because they were not sufficiently supplied with human blood, which the Aztecs designated with a metaphor: "Chalchiuatl" ('precious water'). In order to ensure this supply of victims, they invented the institution of "flower wars", a form of ritual warfare where instead of killing they attempted to capture enemy warriors to sacrifice them.

Another theory ( ) states that human sacrifice was imprinted on the Aztec culture, because these people had a deep fear that the fifth sun would truly cease to exist, since the experience of the disappearance of the previous cycle of cultures, represented in the extinction of the four previous suns, had been imprinted in their cosmogonic memory. Therefore, each human sacrifice actually constituted a voluntary sacro-office; a magical act that prolongs human life on earth, the tlalticpac. How did this true horror of the cosmic catastrophe become imprinted on Aztec culture? Ferrer himself (2015) points out in his theory that the Aztecs actually "are part of the rest of the Atlanteans", the same ones spoken of in the Critias "Critias (dialogue)") and the Timaeus "Timaeus (dialogue)"), who managed to survive the great cosmic hecatomb caused by the fragmented impact of the comet Clovis in North America, about 12 thousand years ago.

In the work Memoriales by Fray Toribio de Benavente or Motolinía, from the 19th century, there is a comment that is related to the Templo Mayor and that became very famous, since it seems to be the only documentary reference that explicitly relates a Mesoamerican temple with astronomical observations. There we read that the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli "fell when the sun was in the middle of Uchilobos, which was the equinox."[28] Measurements in the Templo Mayor confirmed the veracity of this comment. The orientation of stage II, the earliest of those archaeologically attested, manifests a different orientation from that adopted by stage III and which was preserved in all subsequent stages. One of the sunset dates that correspond to the east-west axis of the late stages, including the last, is April 4, which in the Julian calendar of the century was equivalent to March 25. In 1519, this was the last day of Tlacaxipehualiztli, that is, precisely the day of the month's festival.[29] On the other hand, March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, in medieval Europe was commonly identified with the vernal equinox. That is, Motolinía did not refer to the astronomical equinox (of whose date someone not specialized in astronomy at that time would hardly have been aware), but only noted the correlation observed between the day of the Mexica festival, which in the last years before the Conquest coincided with the solar phenomenon in the Templo Mayor, and the date of the Christian calendar that corresponded to the traditional day of the equinox.[30]​.

In 1987, the Templo Mayor Museum was built, annexed to the temple itself, and which was inaugurated on October 12 of that same year. It is the work of Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Jorge Ramírez Campuzano. The route of this museum begins in a perimeter corridor of the archaeological zone, and goes inside it in order to observe the different construction stages of the same, as well as the adjacent buildings visible today after the successive excavations after 1978. Once this route through the visible area is finished, you reach the museum building.

This property has inscriptions on its walls. The first, from the Mexican Songs, and below it, a fragment by Bernal Díaz del Castillo corresponding to the True History of the Conquest of New Spain.

The museum has 8 rooms and thousands of pre-Columbian objects are exhibited that come from more than 110 offerings discovered in the temple. Investigation of the temple and its objects continues.

Entre las salas del Museo se encuentra la de los Dioses Huitzilopochtli y Tláloc. Aquí se muestran las 8 salas que pertenecen al Museo del Templo Mayor:.

1. • Antecedentes Arqueológicos.

2. • Ritual y Sacrificio.

3. • Tributo y Comercio.

4. • Huitzilopochtli.

5. • Tláloc.

6. • Flora y Fauna.

7. • Agricultura.

8. • Periodos colonial y moderno.

Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli or "Left-Handed Hummingbird" is the god of war, solar devotion and patron of the Mexica. Under his tutelage, this town became the most powerful in Mesoamerica during the Postclassic period. He was the son of Coatlicue, brother of Coyolxauhqui, the Moon, and of the stars, the Centzonhuitznahua, all of them gods of Mexica inspiration. Its relevant location in the Templo Mayor shows the importance that Huitzilopochtli represented for the Mexica: war and tribute as part of economic support.

In this room various objects related to Huitzilopochtli are exhibited. Among them, the sculpture known as the “Eagle Warrior” stands out, found in La Casa de las Águilas, a religious building located north of the Templo Mayor. The studies of Dr. Leonardo López Luján give another interpretation to these figures, calling them Eagle Man, which represents the rising sun, or the Tlatoani who is born after his election as ruler. Likewise, the representation of the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, stands out among the pieces exhibited.

Tlaloc

At this point we are halfway through our tour of the Templo Mayor Museum: in the agricultural world, of the fertility of the land along with its economic implications that allowed man to feed and in which many deities presided over by Tláloc intervened.

The god Tláloc, "he who makes sprouts", was the representation of deified water and the fertilizer of the earth, who resided in the highest mountains where clouds are formed. He was a benevolent deity who also had his negative side by sending lightning, frost, floods and hail, all of which could destroy crops. His most important shrine was located in the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlán, next to Huitzilopochtli and his cult was very important since the sustenance of agricultural societies depended on it. The sacrifice of children (mostly sick) was generally dedicated to Tlaloc, due to their physical similarity to the tlaloque, small-bodied gods, assistants of this numen.

This impressive monolithic relief was located on October 2, 2006, in the area of ​​the property that occupies the corner of Guatemala and Argentina, in front of the Templo Mayor. It is a piece carved from lamprobolite andesite, an extrusive volcanic rock with pinkish and violet hues. Its large dimensions make it a spectacular piece, since it measures 4.17 by 3.62 m and reaches a weight of 12 tons.

The quality of the carving is extremely refined. You can notice details such as curly hair, typical of the divinities of darkness, the earth and the underworld. On his face you can see crescent-shaped eyes, a wide nose, and circles on his cheeks, a fleshless mouth and prominent ears adorned with circular jewels from which tala panels hang, all of them distinctive of the earth deity. A circular incision is sculpted on its belly from which a flow of blood flows towards its mouth, distinguishing within said incision two small feet wearing sandals, possibly remains of a lost image of a god or ruler.[31]​.

• - Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

• - Fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

• - Aztec Empire.

• - Aztecs.

• - Historic center of Mexico City.

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second reprint, Mexico, 1996.

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• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Major Temple.

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• - Site of the Templo Mayor Museum.

• - Templo Mayor DFinitivo.com.