Templo Mayor

In the heart of Historic Mexico City, on Zocalo Square and partially buried under the Cathedral of Mexico City, is an ancient Aztec temple, archaeological site, and museum. The temple was active from 1325 until the Spanish destroyed it in 1521 to make room for the Cathedral. Fortunately, much of the site still remains.

The tradition of this temple is deep with human sacrifice and consecration with human blood. If you don’t want to read about that, you should stop reading now and visit our Teotihuacan post instead.

 

The temple doesn’t look like much from the outside, but you can see the prior floors and walls as it was built and rebuilt over the years.

 

This is a depiction of the diety Tlaloc, the wrathful god of rain, lightning and thunder. When pleased, he watered the crops. When displeased, he caused deep droughts. The Aztecs believed that he could be appeased with sacrifices of food, blood, or human lives.

 

This is one (unpleasant) Aztec way of sacrificing a human. The sacrifice would be ritually decapitated as part of the ceremony.

 

Another way to sacrifice humans is with special sacrificial blades. These were left in the skull as decoration after the deed was done.

 

These are the skulls of 3 male infants which sacrificed to Tlaloc.
This monolith of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli was excavated in 2006 and was stunning to vidwd from above. She is adorned with human skulls and crossbones and has a fountain of blood coming out of her mouth. Sounds like a nice lady.

 

Ceramic Seals, used to decorate cloth and pots. (I needed to give you a break from the gory stuff, right?)

 

This is a mask made out of a human skull, complete with dental modifications and creepy rock eyeball.

 

Finally, this sculpture of a golden eagle was meant to receive offerings at the temple in the cavity on its back. The bird measured several feet in length and was a beautiful and impressive sculpture. I hope it helps to wash your mind out after all the creepy things in this article because, frankly, it’s beautiful.