Teopanzolco
Teopanzolco is an excavated archaeological temple zone about 1.5 kilometers northeast of the center of Cuernavaca , the capital of the Mexican state of Morelos, in the middle of residential and industrial areas. The buildings date from the late post-classical period . Although the region was settled by the Tlalhuica at this time , the name comes from the Aztec language : teōpan , temple or church, and the zol-li , which only occurs in connection with nouns , which assigns the noun the quality: old, worn, and the locative suffix co ., thus: At the place of the old temple.
investment
The buildings by Teopanzolco are arranged around a long rectangular square. The eastern edge of the square is formed by a series of five small rectangular and two round platforms. Behind it are further elongated constructions. The southern boundary of the square forms a larger platform that has a wide staircase with stringers. The largest building, the main pyramid, is on the east side of the square. Behind it is building 13, a pyramid building with double stairs that was badly damaged by robbery graves.
Main pyramid
The excavations revealed at least two major construction phases, which are very similar to one another in terms of their layout. The later phase completely envelops the earlier one. During the excavation, this outer mantle remained up to a certain height or was supplemented. In order to make the inner, earlier phase visible, the filling of the outer mantle was removed so far that a wide trench was created, which of course does not represent an original condition.
Both the older and the younger pyramid actually consisted of two buildings erected close together - similar to the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlán , and in Tlatelolco , as well as in Tenayuca . From this analogy one also concludes that the northern of the two temples in Teopanzolco was dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc , while the southern one belonged to the Aztec tribal god Huitzilopochtli . The temple buildings that have been preserved, some of which have been reconstructed up to a certain height, belonged to the first construction phase. A special feature is that the Tlaloc temple has a significantly smaller interior space than the other temple, but a comparable size was made possible by pillars standing outside the surrounding walls, which presumably supported the high, brick roof. Access to the temples is via double staircases with stair stringers, which run almost vertically in the uppermost part.
See also
literature
- Roberto García Moll: Teopanzolco, Morelos . Mexico, INAH 1993
Coordinates: 18 ° 43 ′ 36 " N , 99 ° 19 ′ 43.7" W.