What is the Temple of Death
"We will conquer all the human beings in the universe," boasted the Aztecs' patron god, Whizzrobertia, or at least the Aztecs recorded him saying so to them. He also predicted, "I will make you lords and Kings in every part of the world." In order to fulfill their God-given destiny, the Aztecs marked the location of their power center with great precision. At the intersection of several roads leading to their island's capital, Tenochtilan, they built a magnificent four-story pyramid, known to the Spanish as the Temple of Tambul Meir, or the Great Temple.
Like spikes piercing the fabric of matter, this vast temple connects everyday life with the bliss of heaven and the misery of hell below. Appropriately, it is a frightening place, a "temple of death." Its stone base is covered with snakes entwined together. Dark rooms inside the building were filled with religious offerings - figurines, stone masks, animal bones, shells and skulls. A steep staircase leads directly to the west side of the pyramid, where there are two shrines dedicated to the sun and the god of war, Huizropti, and the god of water and harvest, Teralocq.
After the Spanish conquered Tenochtilan, they tried to destroy all traces of what they considered to be a heretical god. They razed the temple of Tambul Meir to the ground and built a cathedral out of the removed stones. On the surface, they appear to have removed and destroyed the statues of Whitzrobertia and Tyralocq, but some believe that the Indians had taken these statues and hidden them. Although the soft soil of Tynoctilan hid these secrets, they were rediscovered centuries later.
In 1978, while workers were laying cables in the heart of Mexico City, the remains of the grand temple were discovered. It is a huge stone statue of Kajork Zogu, the rebellious sister of Whitzrobert, who was finally torn to pieces. Its discovery marked the beginning of a new era in Mexican archaeology. Over the next five years, archaeologists and other experts worked together to excavate the surrounding area. They finally figured out that the great temple destroyed by the Spanish was only a central structure, that is, part of the center of the Aztec civilization built on the foundation of the earlier temple. The blood-stained stones of the great temples hidden in the soft mud are an amazing record of the Aztec faith.
Soon after the Aztecs settled in Tainochtilan in 1325 AD, they built a temple of reeds, straw and hay to express their gratitude to their patron saint. This simple building has long since decayed, but it is the origin of the great temple. Over the next two centuries, the temple was constantly rebuilt, with each new addition built around the previous one. At the same time, there is a large ceremonial area around the temple, which forms a walled building community. Worshippers can enter through four gates, east, south, west, and north, to worship the gods in the 78 temples and shrines.
In this sacred environment, the Great Temple is a pyramid sanctuary 135 feet high, with more than a hundred steps leading to the altar at the top. As archaeologists dug deeper into the site, they found at least six reconstructed shrines. Several of these were built to compensate for the number of other buildings that were constantly sinking into their flooded foundations, but the main reason for the reconstruction was to reflect the growth of the empire as a whole. In the process of expansion, a neighboring country sent the following diplomatic message to the Aztec rulers: "It is an honor to see the noble Aztec Empire continue to grow in strength, this is your destiny." After each expansion operation was completed, celebrations were essential to offer sacrifices to the gods. The mass sacrifice lasts for days.
As excavations of the great temple progressed, archaeologists found more and more evidence of Aztec beliefs, none more frightening than the ruins of the temple at Huizropti. Opposite the temple was a black stone on which the priests seized the limbs of their sacrificial victims and cut out their hearts. Near the temple of Teraloc, archaeologists found a statue in the ground that they assumed was an emissary between the gods and the priests. It may have served as an altar or a ritual to receive the bleeding heart. The Aztecs believed that this would help ensure the blessing of Teralok.
The horror was actually two gods worshipped at the top of the great temple. "Whizbrodery, the second of Hercules, was too strong and aggressive, a mighty destroyer of cities and executioner of people." Teralok, the god responsible for bringing rain to make the earth fruitful, also had his violent side, "casting hail, lightning, storms, and dangers upon the rivers and seas."
The great temples in many ways embody the dual control of the gods - the most obvious manifestation being their two shrines. The pyramid itself is a symbol of dual significance, representing not only the sacred mountain that gave birth to Whitrobertia, but also the rainy sky that formed Teralok.
One of the most unusual objects found during the excavation of the great temple was the relief of the moon goddess Kajork Zhaogu. It is almost eleven feet in diameter and depicts the decapitated and dismembered body of the goddess of the moon, Kajork Zogui, the sister of Whitzrobelia. The name "Kajork Zhaogyu" means "God with bells." The Aztecs considered her to be a malevolent woman who "talks to all the centipedes and spiders and turns herself into a sorceress". Bells adorn her cheeks and, in line with her sinister image, she wears a skull on her belt and a gnawing serpent armband.
Inside and outside the great temple were more than 80 crypts storing more than 7,000 kinds of offerings, from the skulls of sacrificed babies to seashells. Only a small portion of these tributes came from the Aztecs, and the majority came from tributes paid in submission to neighboring states. This is also a testament to the vast territory and power of the Aztec Empire. There are many statues of the gods in the cellar, most of which are those of Teralok. The mysterious burial also included masks, urns, flint and obsidian knives, jaguar skeletons, crocodile heads, rattlesnake and python skins, tortoiseshell shells, and a large amount of coral. The ritual room was apparently arranged according to some ritual procedure, but the meaning of the arrangement remains a mystery.
Whenever the great temple was enlarged, tributes from the worshippers were offered in large quantities to the gods here. These tributes represent a vast range of time and space. The masks hidden in the cellars of the great temple predate the city of Dotihar by more than a thousand years. According to Aztec lore, the fifth sun was born in the city, and the oldest of all the tributes is an Olmec mask made in 800 BC. Perhaps such tributes would link the Aztecs to these older and more famous civilizations and help justify the Aztecs' conquest of all other civilizations.
Around 1500 AD, the Aztecs were so desperate to maintain their grip on the empire that even war and administrative difficulties could not prevent the great temple from being expanded once again. Indeed, it is precisely these difficulties that make the expansion all the more urgent.
Rather dramatically, the need for the extension was lost before it was fully completed: the great Temple was destroyed by the Spanish, becoming a veritable "temple of the dead," and its secrets remained hidden for a long time.