Mexico City - Templo Mayor

Behind the Cathedral, at the corner of Calles Argentina and Guatemala, lie remains of the Temple Precinct of Tenochtitlán which were discovered some years ago and left in situ. In February 1978 workers building the Metro found a carved stone, a round disc 3.25m (nearly 11ft) in diameter and weighing 8500kg (8.5tons), finely sculpted with a relief of the beheaded and dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui.

This find stimulated other excavations. Until then it had been assumed that the Gran Teocalli, the principal pyramid of Tenochtitlán, lay buried under the Zócalo, but these latest excavations showed the religious and political centre of the Aztec kingdom to have been here, further to the north-east. This temple pyramid had been the 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.