Anthropology Museum

Sacred Aztec Buildings

These buildings that so impressed the Spaniards upon their arrival, symbolizes or summarizes an important part of the Aztec culture. These buildings were mainly dedicated to the gods, as ceremonial temples with their characteristic pyramid shape. Imagine for a moment in the Templo Mayor crowded with people willing to see the ceremony. The priest went to the top of the temple, used the sacrificial stone to dispose of the heart of the first sacrifice before the popular emotion.

When arriving the Spaniards and to initiate the conquest, of the first objectives was to destroy these temples to cause commotion between the Aztecs. Many times they installed churches on them, as in the case of Tlatelolco, or they destroyed them and re used their stones as in the case of the Cathedral in the center of Mexico City.