Overview
Templo Mayor (Huey Teocalli, "Great Temple") was the religious and symbolic heart of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital founded c. 1325 CE on an island in Lake Texcoco. The city, with a population of 200,000–400,000 at its height in the early sixteenth century, was larger than any contemporary European city. The temple stood at the exact center of the Aztec universe as understood by its builders: oriented precisely to the cardinal directions, its summit level with the horizon when viewed from the lake. The structure was rebuilt at least seven times on top of itself, each new version encasing the previous one — a pattern driven by the Aztec calendrical cycle. Twin staircases rose to twin shrines at the summit: one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli (the sun and war god) and one to Tlaloc (rain and agriculture). The temple was demolished by the Spanish in 1521 and its stones used to build Mexico City's colonial center. Its existence under the Zócalo was suspected but unconfirmed until February 1978, when electrical workers excavating a trench struck the Coyolxauhqui Stone — a 3.25-meter monolithic disc weighing 8.5 tonnes, carved with the dismembered body of the moon goddess. The find triggered a decade of excavations directed by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, uncovering more than 7,000 offerings deposited in sealed caches.
