30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreWas another layer planned for the Templo Mayor?
Mexicolore contributor Salvador Guilliem Arroyo
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Brian: It was commonplace for Mesoamerican temples to be built up in faces over time, could we have expected for the Huey Teocalli to also be built up with another layer or more? If so, was there pre-planned space set aside for this expansion at the center of Tenochtitlan? (Generously answered for us by Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem Arroyo, Director of the Proyecto Tlatelolco 1987 - 2024)
It’s true, Mesoamerican cultures tended to build their cities at specific sites that, according to their cosmovision, their gods had directed them to, sites symbolising the thirteen heavens and nine underworlds on a vertical plane, and the four cardinal directions on the horizontal plane. Being the most important, the Templo Mayor represented the sacred apex and its location was therefore unalterable.
To give thanks to their tribal gods for the benefits given them, Mesoamericans built a larger temple (on top of the previous one) whenever they were able to.
In the case of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco this happened 7 times; on other occasions the main facade itself was extended. Since the sacred site was sacrosanct, they erected new buildings on top of disused ones (extending horizontally). Hence they did NOT have space available in which to plan more layers.
Español: Efectivamente, las culturas mesoamericanas acostumbraron construir sus ciudades a partir de un sitio elegido donde, acuerdo a su cosmovision, los dioses les asignaron el sitio donde convergían en lo vertical los trece cielos, los nueve inframundos y en lo horizontal los cuatro rumbos, es decir, el Templo Mayor el más importante, representa el vértice sagrado y por ello NO lo pueden cambiar.
Asi, para agradecer a sus dioses tribales los beneficios recibidos, los grupos mesoamericanos les construían un templo más grande cada vez que podían hacerlo.
En el Caso de Tenochtitlan y Tlatelolco sucedió 7 veces y en otras ocasiones solo ampliaban la fachada principal y por no poder cambiar el lugar sagrado, cubrían horizontalmente las estructuras que dejarían de usar, cubriéndolas con las nuevas edificaciones, por ello NO tenían otro espacio planificado.
Picture sources:-
• Pic 1: illustration by Thelmadatter (Wikipedia)
• Pic 2: photo by Ana Laura Landa/Mexicolore.
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Mexicolore contributor Salvador Guilliem Arroyo
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