Templo Mayor

One of the many notable things in Mexico City's Zocalo is the Templo Mayor. The temple, from the Aztec/Mexica empire, was discovered only just 35 years ago (1978). It isn't quite as old as some of the other ruins outside of D.F., but 650 year old city being discovered only recently is impressive indeed. One of the best things about this area is that the artifacts are very well preserved--many of them still have quite a bit of the original paint!

The Templo Mayor was expanded on 7 different occasions, and on 5 additional occasions, only the main facade was expanded. So, as you walk through the site, you actually get to walk through all the layers. Each time they expanded, they completely covered the temple in a mix of mud and volcanic rock, and then literally built a bigger and taller temple on top of the old one. It was huge at the height of the empire (about 150 feet tall and much wider), but when the Spaniards arrived, they demolished most of it. Only the middle layer remains. (The top was destroyed, and the lower layers exist underground, where they can't be seen). When you first walk in, the temple doesn't seem to be particularly impressive at all.

As you continue, however, you'll see the well-preserved serpent and frog carvings. Serpents and frogs were very important in Aztec culture, both in architecture and in offerings. The frog altars were representative of the god "Tlaloc," or the god of rain and storms.

Continuing on, you'll come to a stone monolith of a dismembered Coyolxauhqui. The shortened version of the story goes like this: the goddess Coatlique got magically pregnant by putting a ball of feathers next to her womb. When her daughter, Coyolxauqui, found out, she conspired with her other siblings to kill their mother. However, the baby in Coatlicue's womb somehow spoke to her and told her that he would defend her. The baby, Huitzilopochtli, was born a grown man. He decapitated Coyolxauhqui, and later went on to become the god of war and sun.

Coyolxauhqui, queen of sibling rivalry.

The next point of interest would be the area where 8 mysterious statues were found leaning against the stairs. No one knows for sure their significance, but the most commonly accepted theory is that they are representative of Coyolxauqui's siblings.

Later, we come to an area with two shrines. The shrine on the south side (right, in the picture below) was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, god of war and sun. In the back, which unfortunately we can't see, there is an opening to enter the shrine. Inside, there was an image of the god. The main activity in this shrine was human sacrifice. People were sacrificed on a black tezontle sacrificial stone, and their hearts offered as divine food to the sun. (Yeeeesh, this culture was so brutal).

The shrine on the north side (left, in the picture above) was dedicated to Tlaloc, god of rain and storms. Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were the two patron deities of the Aztec/Mexica culture. Outside of the Tlaloc shrine, there is a polychrome sculpture of a chac mool bearing the attributes of Tlaloc and still retaining much of its original color. This chac mool dates back to 1350.

Next, we find the House of the Eagles. Only the elite were given access to this building, and this is where they held many of their religious ceremonies (meditation, prayer, penitence, offerings, etc.). Offering blood was likely a common activity here. This was another very well-preserved room, and you can see a lot of the original paint on the base-reliefs.

Also in the House of the Eagles, two statues representing Mictlantecutli (god of the underworld) were found. Yet another strange concept of this culture to me, only people who died a natural death went to the underworld. Dying in war or by sacrifice was the way people could reach the celestial levels. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, is the fact that self-sacrifice was rather common. Now, we don't know for sure what going to the underworld entailed in Aztec/Mexica religion. Nowadays, we think of the underworld as the firey chasm of Hell. It may have been quite different for the Aztecs/Mexicas, but we really can only guess. What we do know is that the underworld had 9 levels, earth had one level, and there were 13 celestial levels. Beyond that, it's all just theory.

The next notable element would be the Tzompantli, or skull wall, which symbolized the region of the dead, Mictlampa. There were 240 stone skulls that made up this building, and the inside was for offerings.

After that, you'll come to the Red Temple, which was probably for leaving offerings. Some of the original red, white, yellow, and blue paint can still be seen.

The Templo Mayor used to be part of a large city, but it's all that's left after the Spaniards came and destroyed everything. In fact, the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Zocalo was literally built on top of other buildings of the city, including the ball court, the sun temple, and the temple of Ehecatl. Ruins of the city are still being found today! Not too long ago, when they were digging for the metro stations, another small offering temple was found, and it is displayed inside the Pino Suarez metro station, since they couldn't move or destroy it.

There is also a Templo Mayor museum, which takes a good 2 hours to tour. The best-preserved artifacts are housed in the museum, including offerings, statues, monoliths, weapons, decorations, explanatory figures and diagrams, and much more.

A representation of how the Templo Mayor was expanded

Mictlantecutli--the god of the underworld. His liver is exposed, because the
Aztecs/Mexicas believed the liver was the source of all evil in humans.



An eagle-warrior statue





There's that Coyolxauhqui again, in all her dismembered-ness.

 

Tlaloc monolith



A super well-preserved eagle sculpture



An offering

 

Another, much less creepy offering

 As brutal, gruesome, and gorey as the Aztec/Mexica culture could be, their history and culture were truly amazing, and so interesting to see and learn about. It's one of my favorite things about living in D.F.--actually seeing and visiting the things I'd only briefly learned about in school, and continuing to learn a lot more about Mexico's history. The Templo Mayor is especially great for those who aren't fluent in Spanish, because all of the signs have an English translation (a bit scarce in other archaelogical zones).

Tula

I spend the second Sunday in May taking a day-trip with some friends. We went to a town/archaeological site called Tula, which is about 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Mexico City.  As a town, Tula isn't really so impressive--it's small and really quite plain. The archaeological site, however, was a really interesting trip. To get there, we took a short taxi ride from the bus station. As it turns out, Mr. Scumbag Taxi Driver took us to the wrong gate, the one only open on holidays. Since we weren't going to put up with being screwed over by a taxi driver, we decided to get out there anyways. After literally pushing ourselves through a hole in the wall (and getting free entrance!), we arrived in to the Tula archaeological park. A short hike up the hill led us to a nice view of the town.


The town of Tula, on an overcast day

 Turning our backs on the town and walking a few short steps led us to the main attraction of Tula: the ruins. There are two particularly well-preserved pyramids, but the biggest attraction is definitely Los Atlantes--the giant statues on top of Pyramid B, also known as The House of the Morning Star. Most likely, only kings and high priests were given access to enter this pyramid. It is thought that this pyramid was dedicated to the worship of royalty and war--both very important in the Toltec culture. The figures at the top are representative of Toltec warriors.


"Pyramid B," or House of the Morning Star, at the Tula ruins

Climbing up to the top of the pyramid is a short and easy task, and you can see the Atlantean figures up close. (Yes, they're really called Atlanteans in English!) Despite the day being overcast, the pictures still turned out fairly well, thank the lord!


2 of the 4 Atlantean figures.



Keeping in mind that these were made at least 1000 years ago, I find it amazing that there is
still some of the original paint on the statues and various decorations around the site.



Also, the sculpting is really quite impressive.




They even sculpted little butts!

  Looking down off the left side of the pyramid, you can see the Palacio Quemado, the Burned Palace. The name comes from when this building was destroyed by a fire towards the end of the city. This structure probably used to be a council room or meeting place of some sort.



Palacio Quemado

Another, more brutal aspect of Toltec society, was the ballgame that was played. The game was played on an I-shaped patio with stone markers set into the walls. The ball, made of raw rubber, was hit with the players hips, knees, and elbows. The goal was to hit the ball against the stone marker on the wall. The game itself doesn't sound too bad at all, but, what happened to the losing team was a little...unfortunate. The losing team was typically sacrificed by beheading. Their decapitated skulls were placed on the Tzompantli, or skull-wall, in front of the court, for all to see. And I thought football was violent...

The ball court. Yeesh, it was difficult to think of what happened, standing right in that spot.

After visiting the ball court, we headed off to the museum, but not before passing some crazy cacti along the path!



Crazy cacti

The museum displayed some of the best-preserved pieces found in the ruin site. Some of the old figurines included sculptures of warrior heads, jaguars, eagles, and serpents.



Jaguar sculpture



A part of a column to hold up the roof that used to be over the meeting area



There were lots of these figures around the House of the Rising Sun, but none of them actually still had the head...

  After leaving the Tula archaeological site, we explored for a bit around the town of Tula. We first stopped for lunch, because we were starving. Inside a small market, we found a Mexican food "restaurant" that was actually more of a shack. The quesadillas were amazing! I tried my first quesadilla de flor de calabaza, which is a zucchini-flower quesadilla, which was super delicious. We grabbed dessert at La Michoacana, a chain ice cream shop with out-of-this-world ice cream, and headed off to explore the town.

The most notable thing about the town was perhaps the church. Not that the church was particularly impressive compared to some that I've seen, but what was interesting was that the church and church plaza was completely surrounded by a tall, thick, concrete wall. It seemed more like a fortress than a church!



The Church in the Tula Centro

After visiting the church, we stopped in the only green area of Tula to sit and rest for a bit. It was a nice place to talk and people-watch.

Our group: Myself, Bronwyn, and Miguel



As you can maybe see in the top right corner of this picture, the rains were coming!

We finished our day by walking back to the bus station, but not before getting completely drenched in a sudden downpour! It was the loudest thunderstorm I've ever been in, but we made it to our bus station safe and sound. At the station, all the electricity was out, so we received handwritten tickets. We also grabbed the cheap, bus-station coffee/cappucchinos, and they were the best cheap, nasty coffee drinks we ever had. (Anything warm seems 200 times better after getting stuck in the cold rain!)


Waiting in line for our bus...under a roof, nicely enough :)

Exhausted, I think we all fell asleep on the way home. It was definitely an early-to-bed night! The day trip was definitely more than worth it, though, and great for some cool history. More day trips are being planned, which I'm really excited for! (Only on Sundays, though, as they're my only day off right now.)

Coyoacan

I spent the first Sunday in May playing tourist in a district called Coyoacan. This area is towards the south of D.F., but it feels like a different city entirely. Coyoacan is the true "old" Mexico City. Old historic buildings, large colonial homes, and cobblestone streets give this area a very unique and cozy feeling. It's only about 40 minutes from my house, via metro. I get off the metro at the station called Viveros. Next to the station, there is a lovely, large park with loads of trees where a lot of people go running.

I was the only one wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a drawstring backpack that screams "I'm a tourist!"

I walked around this park for about an hour, since I didn't know where anything was in Coyoacan and I would certainly have gotten lost. After awhile, I found my favorite smoothie place (which is actually a chain coffee shop, but has really good smoothies), and stopped in for awhile for the free internet, to orient myself using Google Maps. Then, I mapped out a route for the day. First stop was the Jardin Centenario: a pretty garden-park with a big statue of coyotes in the middle.

The Coyoacan coyotes in the Jardin Centenario

From where I was standing when taking that picture, directly behind me was the Parroquia de San Juan Bautista. (Saint John the Baptist Parish). That is one of the oldest parish churches in Mexico City. From the outside, it looks like this:

Parroquia de San Juan Bautista

The outside of the church is old and pretty, but the inside is really the amazing part. I walked in during a church service, but got some nice pictures from the back of the church.

The inside of Parroquia de San Juan Bautista. It was so beautiful!

In the same plaza, to the left of the churchfront, there is also Hernan Cortes' old house. Quick history lesson: Cortes wasn't a really nice guy. He stole the Aztec's gold and silver, destroyed their empire and their temples, kidnapped Montezuma and stole his house, killed a bunch of people, forced all the natives into Catholicism, and put everybody under Spanish rule. So, that guy used to live here:

Cortes' old house. Now it's some sort of government building. One story, but a very big house nonetheless.

From where I was standing in that picture, turning to the left and and walking two minutes will lead you into the Artisan's Market--a really nice place where people sell their handmade crafts. Here, you can find everything from clothes and blankets to pottery and glassware, home decorations to children's toys, and beautiful jewelry to random trinkets. I'm definitely going back there when I get a good paycheck! (And probably spending way too much money...)

The Artisan's Market. Small entrance, but the market stretches back quite far.

After that, I decided to walk to a small church called La Conchita. Little did I know, just last week archaeologists discovered a hidden tomb below the church! So, I was not able to enter, as it is temporarily closed off. However, the outside was pretty on its own.

The Conchita gardens, with the church just in the background. See the lovely black tarp and white sheet-metal walls blocking off the church? Still, a beautiful church and gardens.



La Conchita, what you can see above the wall.

Next, I stopped in the Frida Kahlo gardens, which were a nice and peaceful place to sit and rest for a bit.

Hey, Frida!

I also stopped by the Frida Kahlo house/museum, Casa Azul, but the line was wrapped all the way around the block. Sunday afternoon is not the time to go. So, I just got a picture of the outside. I was there!


Casa Azul

On my way back to the subway, I took a slightly different route, and happened along the best coffee shop I've ever been to. El Jarocho has the most amazing coffee, hands down. I had something called a Capuchimoka fria, kind of like a cold mochachino. OMG. This could definitely be a Sunday tradition.
Walking with my delicious iced coffee, I continued along a street where I passed many colorful buildings, and some old colonial homes.



A colorful set of restaurants.



Colonial house-gate. They like to hide the houses behind big walls, so nosy tourists like me don't post pictures of strangers' houses on gringa blog sites...

Just as I was approaching the big avenue to take me out of Coyoacan and back to the subway, I passed two small but pretty churches.

Iglesia Santa Catarina--Saint Catherine Church



Capilla de San Antonio--Saint Anthony Chappel

Aaaand that's all I saw on Sunday. At some point in there I had a corn and mushroom quesadilla, and the first churro I've ever eaten, which was filled with something called cajeta, which is similar to caramel but not quite the same. It was a really good day! (Minus the taxi incident, which is mentioned in the previous post).