The other day we broke one of the biggest sales pitch in Mexican tourism: the famous pyramids of Teotihuacan were not Aztec; in fact they were a ghost town long before the rise of the Aztec civilization! Would you like to catch up? Do it here: Were they Aztec or Mayan?.
The Aztecs arrived in the Basin of Mexico relatively late in history, around the 13th Century A.D.; they were essentially pilgrims looking for a place to settle. By the time Dante Alighieri was finishing the Divine Comedy, the Aztecs were founding Mexico City—just a few decades before the Black Death swept across Europe.
The Aztec capital never stopped growing. Eventually, it evolved into the vibrant, 10-million-inhabitant monster we see today. And there, right in the Historic Center of this cosmopolitan beast —hidden silently, in plain sight, on a discrete corner between the majestic Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Palace—lie the vestiges of the actual Aztec pyramid: the core of the their worldview and spiritual life. Systematically destroyed by the Spanish government to build the viceregal city, the remaining structure we can visit today was preserved thanks to one of the city’s relentless enemies: the sinking of its former lake soil.
Standing almost as high as London’s Tower Bridge, the Aztec Pyramid was known as the Great House of the Gods—Huey Teocalli, in Nahuatl, the original language. It was dedicated to both the God of War, and the God of Water (to whom we’ve also dedicated our blog Thor, the mighty god of thunder?). This double temple was built in seven different stages, one on top of the other; the earliest stages sank into the soft lake bed, and that is precisely why they weren’t completely wiped out after the fall of the Aztec Empire.
Although you will never see an Aztec pyramid standing in its former splendor, the stories these vestiges have to tell are mind-blowing and hundred percent worth seeing.
No Shit Trips
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