Templo Mayor - The Aztec World Underfoot

Photo: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Mexico City: Centro Historico Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Look over the railings and you are peering down into Tenochtitlan itself. This was the Templo Mayor, the great pyramid at the center of the Aztec capital, crowned by twin shrines: one to Huitzilopochtli, god of war and the sun, and one to Tlaloc, god of rain. According to Mexica tradition, this is where their wandering ancestors finally saw a promised sign, an eagle perched on a cactus, and founded their city in the 1300s. You will find that eagle on the Mexican flag.

The pyramid was rebuilt and enlarged again and again, each new version encasing the last like nesting shells, which is why you can see stairways inside stairways. The Spanish tore it down in 1521 and built over the ruins, and it stayed buried for centuries. Then in 1978, electric company workers digging nearby struck a huge carved stone disk showing the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui. Excavations followed, and a whole city block was cleared.

The ruins and site museum charge admission; check the website for current hours.

Getting here: Walk to the east end of the cathedral; the excavated ruins open up just beyond it, a three-minute walk.

Did you know?: Some of the stones in the Metropolitan Cathedral next door were taken from the demolished Aztec temple you are looking at.

Photo op: From the viewing walkway along the edge of the ruins, frame the layered stairways descending one inside another.

More on Wikipedia: Templo Mayor · Coyolxauhqui Stone · Huitzilopochtli · Tlaloc

Templo Mayor - The Aztec World Underfoot

Stops on this tour