Templo Mayor Archaeological Zone and Museum
Excavated main temple of Mexica Tenochtitlan beside the cathedral, with an adjoining site museum.
The Templo Mayor was the twin-shrined principal pyramid of Tenochtitlan, dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and to Huitzilopochtli. Spanish forces demolished it after 1521 and the colonial city was laid out over the sacred precinct. The site was rediscovered in February 1978 when electricity workers struck the carved monolith of Coyolxauhqui, and the Templo Mayor Project directed by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma cleared several city blocks to expose the successive building stages of the pyramid.
Raised walkways now lead visitors over the layered platforms, sculptural braziers, serpent heads and the reconstructed House of the Eagles. The adjoining museum, designed by Pedro Ramirez Vazquez and opened in 1987, arranges its eight halls around the two cults of the temple. Its displays hold thousands of objects from ritual offerings, among them the great Coyolxauhqui disc, the monolith of the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli unearthed in 2006, and eagle warrior sculptures in fired clay.
Highlights
- Raised walkway over the successive building stages of the Mexica pyramid
- The carved Coyolxauhqui disc found by accident in 1978
- The Tlaltecuhtli monolith, uncovered in 2006 and weighing about 12 tonnes
- House of the Eagles, with its life-size eagle warrior figures
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
