Aztec Temples



Aztec temples were called, by the Mexica people of the empire, Teocalli - God houses. The priests of the Aztec religion went to these temples to worship and pray, and make offerings to the gods to keep them strong and in balance.

Aztec Religious Beliefs

The Aztecs were a very religious race and strongly believed in the practice of sacrificing people to please the gods. They sacrificed over 20,000 people a year. The emperor thought that a special temple should be built for the deadly ritual, so, the Aztecs built the Sacrificial Temple. One example of such a temple would be the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan.

Aztec Temples

When Cortes and the Spanish Conquistadors came upon the first Aztec cities they were stunned and amazed at the level of civilization and architecture.

Aztec Pyramids Facts

The natives, who they considered up to then savages, were suddenly revealed to be sophisticated and intelligent. Of course, there was still that little matter of human sacriface.

Often a whole area of a city would be dedicated to religious activities. Some monuments would be made to specific gods. Some were built for specific celebrations. The buildings you probably associate with the Aztec religion are the great pyramids. These were four sided, stable structures that can withstand the earthquakes that are common in the area. These would have stairs up one side, and a flat top, often with a shrine on the top.

Aztec Templo Mayor

Templo Mayor was a part of the sacred area of the city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City. It was only one of perhaps 75-80 buildings which included other pyramids, ornamental walls, gathering places, shops and, of course, bathrooms. Since the city was build on swampy ground, the temples would often sink and needed to be repaired and built up over the years.

Aztec Temples

The temple itself was the main religious building of the capitol city, and it had two shrines on the top - one to Huitzilopochtli and one to Tlaloc. Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird of the South) was the patron god of the Mexica people, the one who led them to Tenochtitlan in the first place. He was the god of the sun and war. Tlaloc was the god of rain and fertility. Both gods required constant human sacrifice. During the final phase of construction, thousands were sacrificed.

Aztec Great Pyramid

Being the most important of the Aztec temples, the Great Pyramid underwent many changes during his existence. It was enlarged multiple times, with the final renovation taking place in 1497. During this final renovation, the Aztec people documented having sacrificed 84,000, though modern historians believe it was probably closer to 3,000.

The Great Pyramid was extremely steep. In fact, the top of this grand Aztec temple could not be seen unless it was climbed. This was done intentionally to signify their belief that the gods were far above the people and all earthly things. As such, the Aztec temples symbolically demonstrated that no one could come even close to the gods unless on top of the pyramid, because the Aztec gods lived in the sky.

Aztec Temples

One of the primary reason ancient people constructed pyramid shapes was the ease of actual construction. Since each layer serves as a base for the next one (like stairs) , no heavy machinery is required - also certainly they require extraordinary manual labor to haul the block of stone up to each level. Such labor was always in the form of slave labor and no doubt in the case of the Aztecs many of the slaves who built the temples ended up being sacrificed in them when they were finished.

More info on- Aztec architecture, Art

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