Mexico City - Templo Mayor

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dominant building of the holy precinct; on the top, pointing south, stood the temple to Huitzlipochtli, god of war, and to the north that of Tláloc, the god of rain. Together these symbolised the chief Aztec deities of war and death, life and water.

The excavation work, which necessitated the demolition of a whole block of flats, began at the main front of the pyramid with its double staircase, roughly on the line of the east side of Calle Argentina. It was discovered that this side of the pyramid had been built over no less than eleven times, while on the other sides there were only five rebuildings. Nothing has survived of the two temples, dedicated respectively to Tláloc and Huitzilopochtli, which originally stood on the top of the pyramid.

In the fifth layer from the top, however, was found the summit platform of an earlier pyramid with well-preserved temple walls. In front of the left-hand temple, dedicated to Tláloc, stood a figure of Chac-mool, still preserving most of its vividly-coloured painting. From the height of the walls and the material used it is deduced that these temples were probably erected before the Aztecs gained control of the Aneahuac valley in 1428. There may well be even older temples at lower levels, but it seems improbable that these will be brought to light.

Buried between different building levels were found the skulls of sacrificial victims and numerous vessels containing votive offerings. An interesting feature is the fact that only a fraction of the objects found, which numbered more than seven thousand, were of Aztec origin, most of them coming from the territories of other Indian peoples. Probably these represent tributes from the Aztecs' subject peoples, offered to the gods before the completion of a new pyramid.

A walkway through the site leads past the precinct of the aristocratic "winged warriors", where remains of their residences, decorated with multi-coloured reliefs, have been unearthed.