Wikimedia CommonsMesoamericaLiving culture
Aztec / Mexica
The Mexica empire of central Mexico — Tenochtitlan, the Templo Mayor, and the gods of the Fifth Sun.
The Aztec or Mexica civilization built one of the largest cities in the world on an island in Lake Texcoco. Their mythology of the Five Suns, the sacrifice of Nanahuatzin, and the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl shaped Mesoamerican culture for centuries. Today, the ruins of Tenochtitlan lie beneath Mexico City, and many traditions persist in modern Mexican culture.
5 entries mapped
Wikimedia CommonsAztec / MexicaMythUNESCOTemple / Ruins
Teotihuacan
The ancient city where the gods sacrificed themselves to create the Fifth Sun
Mexico City, MexicoRead more
Wikimedia CommonsAztec / MexicaMythTemple / Ruins
Templo Mayor
The center of the Aztec universe — buried beneath Mexico City for 500 years, rediscovered by electrical workers in 1978
Mexico City (on-site), MexicoRead more
Wikimedia CommonsAztec / MexicaMythTemple / Ruins
Monte Alban — Zapotec City of the Clouds
The hilltop capital of the Zapotec civilization, occupied 500 BCE-700 CE, with an astronomical observatory and enigmatic carved figures
Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, MexicoRead more
Wikimedia CommonsAztec / MexicaFolktaleCursed Place
Isla de las Munecas — Island of the Dolls
A Xochimilco island shrine covered in hundreds of decaying dolls, created to appease a drowned girl's spirit — where modern folk legend meets Aztec spiritual geography
Mexico City (Xochimilco borough), MexicoRead more
Wikimedia CommonsAztec / MexicaLegendBurial Ground / Memorial
Guanajuato Mummies
Naturally mummified bodies from a 19th-century cholera outbreak, now displayed in a museum that embodies Mexico's unique relationship with death
Guanajuato, GTO (Leon 56 km west), MexicoRead more