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See you later, Alligator...

To the Aztecs, Mother Earth was not only a god(dess) but also a gigantic living creature: to some a fantastic giant toad armed with tusks and fierce claws, to others a monster alligator, floating in a huge sea, whose spiny back formed the world’s mountain ridges.

‘Alligator’ is Number One in the cycle of twenty calendar or day signs in the Aztecs’ sacred calendar.

The Earth was sacred, the very centre of the Aztec world, with the power both to give life (to humans, animals and crops) and to take it away...

While the earth monster slept, humans enjoyed the fruits of the earth - look for the ears of maize growing from the back of the monster!

When, however, the creature awoke and stretched, the Aztecs experienced sudden, deadly movements in the earth itself - earthquakes!