Tenayuca - Serpent Pyramid

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for star-gazing and that the building was aligned with heavenly bodies. A pointer to this is the existence of posts in the pyramid walls at the exact spot where the sun goes down on March 21st and September 23rd, in other words at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. As at Chichén-Itzá and Teotihuacán the north-south axis here at Tenayuca has also as a result been shifted 17 degrees to the east.

The main part of what is visible today of the pyramid derives from the last three casing structures to be added. The final appearance of the site is in its essential features very similar to the main temple (Templo Mayor) of Tenochtitlán, which was almost completely destroyed, its remains having only been discovered in the last few years. The pyramid is surrounded on three sides by a platform which is decorated by the bodies of recumbent serpents. This "serpent wall" (Coatepantli) today comprises 138 serpent sculptures. Originally the pyramid is thought to have been embellished with a total of 800 stone serpents. The rolled-up fire or turquoise serpents (Xiuhcóatl) next to the small platforms (two on the north and one on the south side), which presumably served as symbols of the sun's authority, date from the time that the fifth casing structure was added. A vault decorated with skulls and skeletons, to the right of the pyramid, probably symbolises the setting of the sun. Two wide parallel flights of steps used to lead across the four-storey pyramid to the double temple.