In front of you, below street level, lie the ruins of the Templo Mayor, the great sanctuary of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. What you see is not one pyramid but several, nested like layers: each Mexica ruler enlarged the temple by building over the previous one, and archaeologists have identified seven construction stages.

1The centre of the Mexica world

According to tradition, the Mexica founded their city on an islet in Lake Texcoco, where they saw an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus; the date usually given is 1325. The Templo Mayor was the axis of their sacred precinct. On top stood two shrines: one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, god of war, and the other to Tláloc, god of rain. After the fall of Tenochtitlan on 13 August 1521, the conquistadors pulled it down and reused its stones to build the new city.

2A chance discovery

For centuries people knew the temple was somewhere around here, but not exactly where. On 21 February 1978, workers from the Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro, digging a few yards away, struck a huge carved stone disc: the goddess Coyolxauhqui, beheaded and dismembered. The find launched the Templo Mayor Project, led by archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, which uncovered the base of the temple. The site museum opened in 1987, and in 2006 the monolith of Tlaltecuhtli, more than four metres long, turned up close by.

Beneath the asphalt of the Centre, the Mexica city is still there: any building work can turn into an excavation.

3What to look for

  • The overlapping staircases: look for where one stage peeks out beneath the next.
  • The stone serpent heads at the base of the temple.
  • The difference in level: Mexica ground lies several metres below today's street.
Circular relief of the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui
The Coyolxauhqui stone, found in 1978, now in the Templo Mayor Museum.

Documented

The Coyolxauhqui sculpture was found on 21 February 1978; the Templo Mayor Project identified seven construction stages and the site museum opened in 1987.

Oral tradition

The founding of Tenochtitlan in 1325, with the eagle on the cactus, is the traditional Mexica account; the date comes from later chronicles.

Sources and credits

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Templo Mayor archaeological zone and museum; Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, "The Great Temple of the Aztecs" (1988); Arqueología Mexicana magazine, special issue on the Templo Mayor.

Photos:

  • Volcanic stone walls and platforms in the Templo Mayor archaeological zone: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Circular relief of the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui: Thelmadatter, Dominio público.

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