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The sacred precinct - besieged by 20th century gods!

The sacred precinct - besieged by 20th century gods!

View today of the Templo Mayor complex, Mexico City

Who would have thought that the Templo Mayor (sacred precinct) of the Mexica/Aztecs, having suffered sustained bombardment in the 16th century at the hands of the invading Spanish force, and then centuries buried under the Mexican capital city, should then be subjected to not one but two assaults by a very modern deity - worshipped by humans the world over - the metal-bodied automobile!

Just 4 days after the major discovery, on February 21st. 1978, of the Aztec moon goddess Coyolxauhqui stone, in the centre of Mexico City, the freshly unearthed sacred precinct of the Mexica was the victim of a frontal assault by a very modern and potentially lethal object - a Chevrolet! Its driver, perhaps anxious to get home for breakfast (the time was 6 am on February 25th), ignored the signs warning of the closure of Guatemala street behind the Metropolitan Cathedral due to the excavations, and ploughed his way onto the platforms protecting the stone monolith below. As you might expect, the temple was unscathed; the car was a write-off...

Amazingly, history repeated itself some twenty years later, when, on August 20th 1999, a drunken police offer, driving a stolen car, careered at high speed through crash barriers at the end of the same street, and leapt eight metres onto pre-Hispanic steps and stucco at the rear of the Templo Mayor. By a strange coincidence, it was another Chevrolet... The car was towed away and destroyed, the driver got off scot free (surprise, surprise), and the Mexica gods grumbled with irritation and went back to sleep...

Does Chevrolet have a grudge against the Templo Mayor, or vice versa? One thing’s for sure, just as in the 16th century, it will be a very unequal fight. Guess who’ll win...

Photo of the Templo Mayor today by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
Press photos of the incidents found at -
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=595779&page=366

Note: This story was first told to us by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma during a lecture he gave on archaeological developments at the Templo Mayor at Canning House, London, in 2005.

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The sacred precinct - besieged by 20th century gods!

View today of the Templo Mayor complex, Mexico City

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