Best Aztec

The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century encyclopedic account of Nahua life in New Spain directed by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún with extensive participation by Indigenous scholars, writers, and artists. Its twelve books present parallel Nahuatl and Spanish texts covering religion, society, p...

The Aztec Sun Stone is a massive basalt sculpture created by the Mexica people around 1500 CE in Mexico. It depicts complex calendrical systems alongside representations of their primary deities, particularly Tonatiuh, the central solar deity. This stone served as a vital tool for religious rituals...

Quetzalcoatl is a major deity in ancient Mesoamerican mythology, whose name translates to "Feathered Serpent" in the Nahuatl language. He was venerated by several cultures, including the Toltecs and the Aztecs, serving as the god of wind, rain, and knowledge. Often associated with the planet Venus a...

The Founding of Tenochtitlan is an origin myth of the Mexica people, documenting the establishment of their capital city in 1325. According to the legend, the Mexica were instructed by their patron deity, Huitzilopochtli, to settle permanently in a location where they witnessed an eagle perched on a...

"Sun Stone" ("Piedra de sol") is a long poem by the Mexican writer Octavio Paz, published in 1957. The poem is composed of 584 hendecasyllabic lines, a structure that corresponds to the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus in the Aztec calendar. It is noted for its circular structure, lacking a distinc...

The Codex Mendoza is a sixteenth-century manuscript created in colonial Mexico, probably during the early 1540s and associated with Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain. Its pictorial and Spanish-language sections describe Mexica rulers and conquests, tribute owed by subject towns, and...

The Legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl is a traditional Aztec myth that explains the origin of two volcanoes east of Mexico City. The story centers on a tragic romance between a warrior, Popocatépetl, and a princess, Iztaccíhuatl. According to the legend, Iztaccíhuatl dies of grief after being...

The Codex Borgia is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican screenfold manuscript associated with the group of ritual books named after it. Painted on animal skin and folded accordion-style, it presents deities, calendrical signs, ceremonies, and divinatory sequences connected with the 260-day ritual calendar....

The Coatlicue statue represents the Aztec earth goddess, originating from Mexico’s Mexica civilization. Carved from stone, it depicts her with a prominent serpent skirt symbolizing fertility and power. This relic offers insight into ancient Mesoamerican beliefs and is of interest to archaeologists,...

The Aztec or Mexica civilization was a Mesoamerican society that dominated the central valley of Mexico during the 14th and 15th centuries. Centered on the island city of Tenochtitlan, founded circa 1325, they constructed a vast tribute empire known as the Triple Alliance. The civilization ended fol...

The Coyolxauhqui Stone is a large stone relief depicting the Aztec deity Coyolxauhqui, the dismembered moon. Recovered from the Templo Mayor in Mexico City, it represents a significant ritual object within Mexica religion. The carving illustrates a crucial moment in mythology and offers insight into...

The Templo Mayor was the main ceremonial pyramid of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital founded around 1325 CE on an island in Lake Texcoco. Located in present-day Mexico City, the pyramid was the religious and political center of the Aztec Empire. The structure consisted of twin staircases dedicated to...

Tlaloc is the ancient Mesoamerican rain and water deity worshipped continuously for over a millennium, depicted with goggle eyes and fangs, and honored at a twin temple atop the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan.

Tezcatlipoca was a central deity in the Aztec pantheon, serving as the god of the night sky, night winds, obsidian, magic, rulership, and conflict. His name translates to "Smoking Mirror" in the Nahuatl language, referring to the black obsidian mirrors used by Mesoamerican cultures for shamanic ritu...

Huitzilopochtli is the patron deity of the Mexica people, serving as the Aztec god of war, the sun, and human sacrifice in ancient Mesoamerican religion. As the chief god of Tenochtitlan, he guided the Mexica to their promised land and required constant nourishment through ceremonial offerings to en...

The Legend of the Volcanoes is an Aztec-origin story from central Mexico that explains the formation of two prominent peaks, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. In the legend, Popocatépetl was a warrior who went to battle, and Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who was falsely told of his death. She died of gri...

Eduardo Matos Moctezuma is a Mexican archaeologist renowned for his extensive work excavating Templo Mayor in Mexico City. His leadership from 1978 revealed the principal Aztec temple within Tenochtitlan, significantly advancing our understanding of Mesoamerican civilization and Aztec religious prac...

Eduard Seler was a German archaeologist and philologist primarily known for his extensive work in Mesoamerica during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His detailed study of Aztec codices and archaeological sites near Mexico City provided crucial insights into the culture and language of the Az...

Leonardo López Luján is a prominent Mexican archaeologist dedicated to the study of the Aztec civilization. He leads the ongoing excavation and research at Templo Mayor, Mexico City’s most significant Aztec ruin. His work focuses on understanding Aztec religious practices, particularly human sacrifi...

Coatlicue is a major earth and mother goddess in Aztec mythology, recognized as the mother of the war god Huitzilopochtli. Her name translates to "Serpent Skirt" in Nahuatl, reflecting her famous monumental statue where she wears a skirt of writhing serpents and a necklace of human hearts, hands, an...

The Templo Mayor was the principal Aztec temple complex within Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. Constructed over centuries, it served as a sacred space dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun, and Tlaloc, the rain god. Excavations began in 1978 revealing seven distinct...

Michael E. Smith is an American archaeologist and academic recognized for his extensive research on the Aztec civilization and ancient Mesoamerican urbanism. He has directed numerous systematic surface surveys and excavations of post-classic sites in central Mexico, including the Aztec rural communi...

The Tizoc Stone is a large circular Mexica monument carved during the reign of Tizoc, who ruled the Aztec Empire in the late fifteenth century. Its sides show repeated scenes of Tizoc or a ruler figure subduing warriors identified with conquered places, while the upper surface bears imagery associat...

Mictlantecuhtli is the Aztec deity of death and the ruler of Mictlan, the lowest and northernmost level of the Aztec underworld. In codices and art, he is typically represented as a skeletal figure or a man with a skull, frequently adorned with bone motifs and owl feathers. He governed the afterlife...

Tonatiuh is the Aztec solar deity who presides over the fifth sun, the current era in Aztec cosmological history, which was believed to require human blood sacrifice to sustain its movement across the sky. He appears at the center of the Aztec Sun Stone (Piedra del Sol), a large monolithic basalt sc...

Xipe Totec is an Aztec deity associated with agriculture, the changing of seasons, craftsmanship, and the renewal of life, whose name translates approximately to 'Our Lord the Flayed One.' During the spring festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli, Aztec priests wore the flayed skins of sacrificial captives t...

Elizabeth Brumfiel (1945-2012) was an American archaeologist who specialized in Mesoamerican studies, particularly focusing on Aztec economy, gender roles, and social inequality. As a professor at Northwestern University and later Albion College, she conducted extensive fieldwork at the Aztec provin...

Chalchiuhtlicue is the Aztec goddess of water, rivers, lakes, and oceans, whose name translates to "She of the Jade Skirt." In Aztec mythology, she was the consort of the rain god Tlaloc and presided over the fourth sun, or world age. According to legend, she destroyed the fourth world with a devast...

Xochiquetzal is an Aztec goddess of beauty, love, fertility, and the arts, whose name translates to "Flower Quetzal" or "Precious Flower." She is strongly associated with the quetzal bird and flowering plants, particularly marigolds. In Aztec society, she was revered as the patroness of weavers, pai...