Templo Mayor

In 1978 electrical workers digging beside the cathedral struck a huge carved disc of the dismembered moon goddess Coyolxauhqui - and Mexico City tore up a block of itself to uncover what lay beneath. What emerged was the Templo Mayor, the ceremonial heart of Aztec Tenochtitlan: the great twin-shrined pyramid dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, god of war, and Tlaloc, god of rain, rebuilt seven times as each ruler wrapped a grander temple around the last. Walkways now thread the excavation past serpent heads still holding traces of paint, a wall of carved skulls, altars of frogs and eagles, and the layered shells of successive pyramids. The site museum holds the finds - the twelve-tonne Tlaltecuhtli monolith, obsidian offerings, coral and jaguar burials that map the Aztec cosmos. Standing in the pit with the cathedral looming above is the shortest lesson in Mexican history anywhere: one sacred center built directly on another.

Highlights

• The layered pyramids - seven construction stages nested like shells.
• The Coyolxauhqui and Tlaltecuhtli stones - monumental carved goddesses in the museum.
• The tzompantli - a wall of carved stone skulls.
• The cathedral overhead - colonial Mexico built literally on the Aztec temple.

When to go

Dry-season mornings, November to April, before tour groups thicken by mid-morning. The museum is the afternoon half of the visit and closes with the site - allow time.

What to expect

The ruins are foundations, not soaring pyramids - the drama is in the layers and the museum, so read as you go or the stones stay mute. Walkways are exposed to full sun. Closed Mondays, like most INAH sites.

Nearby

The Zocalo, the cathedral, the National Palace's Rivera murals and the Palacio Postal all within a few blocks.

Key facts