30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreHow big was the Aztec Calendar (Stone)?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Amy Firkins: Hello my name is Amy, I have a question to ask you, how tall was the real aztec calendar? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Thanks for your question, Amy. We think you’re asking about the famous Aztec Calendar Stone; it’s often called the Sunstone, or sometimes the ‘Stone of the Suns’ - or occasionally by Mexicans (joking!) ‘Moctezuma’s watch’...
Well, it’s seriously tall! Here we’re showing you three photos, to give you an idea of just how big it was: it’s kept in the ‘Sala Mexica’ (Aztec Hall) of the largest museum in Mexico, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, and you can see it in the distance (picture 1); then there’s a close-up of the Calendar Stone with a teenager pretending to be holding it up (picture 2); and finally there’s a really close-up photo of the centre part of the Stone (picture 3).
If you want the actual details: it weighs about 24.5 tons, is made of solid basalt stone, and measures more than 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) in diameter. So that means it’s the height of two tall grown-ups! It was discovered on December 17th., 1790, when workers were levelling the central plaza (main square) of Mexico City. For almost 100 years it was hung on the outside of the west tower of Mexico City’s Cathedral, until in 1885 the president of Mexico at the time, Porfirio Díaz, ordered its transfer to the National Museum.
You can have fun exploring the Sunstone with our interactive section - follow the link below!
Comments (1)
A
Amy Firkins
23rd Feb 2009
Thanks for answering my question, now i know a lot more!
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