January 18 Part 2 Templo Mayor

Our last major stop of the day was to Templo Mayor which is the only Aztec civilization being excavated in Mexico City.  Any area that has been inhabited for centuries upon centuries will have many layers of culture buried under the current civilization.  Which layer do you keep?

This is a scale comparison to other grand buildings, including the Roman Coliseum.

One of the first things you see is this preserved tree.  It was of major importance to the religion of the time.

This sign explains how this spot was chosen to be the grand city Tenochititian, of the Mexica people as they called themselves.

A time line for the different cultures that thrived here.

Now to the actual ruins.  Snakes were important so you will see several of them.

These are not the real statues - those are inside the museum.

The benches in the next two photos were intricately carved.  Again, the real ones are in the museum.

You can see the Metropolitan Cathedral in the background.

Inside the museum.

This is very large.  You go to the next level up to see the entire thing.

A close up of the original benches.

Just for some color - a photo of the sanitary workers we saw all over the city.