Tenochtitla The Great Temple Analysis

There was a calling to the city of Tenochtitlan, the presence of the celestial levels grew stronger as you were drawn towards the center of the city. As I wandered closer I felt a connection with the skies, I knew that it was my calling to find a way to bridge the realms. I was only a loyal Aztec, a firm believer. I worshipped the power before me and believed that if anyone could break the walls amongst the realms then it would be the king. There were talks about the reconstruction of a great temple going around in the city, I grew interested and wanted to learn more. Thus came the continued construction of the Templo Mayor, the largest and most significant in sacred ceremonial precinct. It was a calling from the cosmos, there was no better way to worship the gods than to create a structure that would bring us closer to them in this axis mundi.
The city of
Tenochtitlan had a purpose even before the construction of Templo Mayor. The city was founded in 1345 when the Aztecs found their way into Lake Texcoco after our god, Huitzilopochtli, described the location to the first founders of the city (The Art of Mesoamerica). Huitzilopochtli was one of the gods that we worshipped the most, he was a cult god, who was also a war and hunting deity. Aztec myths say that the early founders were promised an island in a lake, once they have found where an eagle sat on a cactus, that the location was going to be the city that was destined to serve for the heavens (The Art of Mesoamerica). The Great Temple has been through several reconstructions since it was first made during the period when Tenochtitlan was founded. Although I was not part of the team to have originally built the ceremonial precinct, my contribution of the building was monumental.
Tenochtitlan was structured on a grid system with intersecting lines. Our culture believes in the universe and it was cautiously planned out, the temple had to align with the movement of the stars and heavenly bodies. The Templo Mayor lived on the terrestrial level that became the connection between the celestial and subterrestrial levels. We treated the kings as gods, they are the only ones who were worthy enough to communicate with the heavens. In the celestial level, there are nine levels, the gods lived in the last three levels that the “Place of duality” known as Omeyocan. This higher realm was represented by the tops of the pyramids, it was made to be closer to the skies (The Great Temple). The terrestrial level had four world directions that intersected exactly where the construction of the temple was started. It was a sacred spot where each creator god of the four world directions would meet. The platform was the ground of terrestrial level. We had guarded it with serpent sculptures to further symbolize the earth (The Great Temple). Since there are heavens there is also an underworld, the subterrestrial realm consisted of nine levels. The levels of underworld were beneath the ground of the platform. Believing in the cosmos was important to the Aztecs and especially important to the construction of the temple, it shaped the way we lived and the way we perceive our surroundings.
The Great Temple was more than just a place to worship our gods but it laid the foundation of balance between moral opposites for our culture, socially and economically.
This is where I came in, the building lacked the shrines before my team’s addition. The twin temple worshipped two deities, Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, they were the sun god and rain deity. Huitzilopochtli and Coatepec took the north side, it represented Coatepec Hill where Coatlicue gave birth to Huitzilopochtli and where Coyolxauhqui was killed by her own brother. After her head was cut off, she was thrown to the bottom of the hill and was dismembered. At the base of the temple where the goddess had fallen, a sculpture can be found that represents the goddess’ downfall (The Great Temple). Conflict between brother and sister sets a tone of morality in the social aspects of civilization. The male was stronger and got to rise to the top near the heavens, while the female was defeated and stayed low on the platform (The Great Temple). The strong opposites of life and death is what makes this temple powerful, it was the highest form of
contrast.
The south side worshiped Tlaloc. As a rain deity, the god provided services for agriculture that would bring benefits to the civilization. According to Nahua myth, Tonacatepetl or the “Hill of sustenance,” was where food was given to mankind. It represented where Quetzalcoatl found maize and established how the gods provided food for man by keeping the lands fertile and nurturing the plants to make it grow more (The Great Temple). The juxtaposition of the two deities brought attention to the unity of the figures. Huitzilopochtli was already valued as a god and by placing Tlaloc next to him emphasized stability. The temples were placed at the top of the structure to bring the people closer to the heavens physically and spiritually. The large set of staircase that led to the shrines represented the distinct hierarchy between mankind and the gods.