Ancient Aztec Calendar (Credit: Image by PublicdomainImages from Pixabay)
THE AZTECS
They Had It All and Lost It All!
Religious Fanatics Conquerors Extraordinary Engineers
Discover - A quick journey through the history books to learn about an incredible culture.
Beyond Belief - Religious Fanatics?
The Aztecs maintained the goodwill of the gods by offering the most precious possession - LIFE
The Aztecs worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses. While some deities were benevolent, others were terrifying and cruel.
At the core of their religious faith was the belief that the gods needed to be acknowledged and thanked to avoid life’s catastrophes. So strong was their belief that the gods needed human sacrifices; they built specific ceremonial centres to carry out these religious rites. History reveals that the Aztecs sacrificed more than any other known religion, with about 20,000 people killed every year to satisfy the gods.
Special occasions accentuated the demand for more sacrifices. An incredible example was the new temple dedicated to Huitzilopochtli in 1487; records reveal sacrifices of an estimated 80,400 people.
“The Aztecs Constructed This Tower Out of Hundreds of Human Skulls
The bones likely belong to people sacrificed during the reign of Ahuizolt, eight king of the Aztecs (Courtesy of INAH)
Central Gods, Goddesses and Sacrifices
Tezcatlipoca was the God of a wide range of concepts, including Night Sky, Hurricanes, Rulership, Jaguars, Beauty, War and Strife. Young men of good looks were chosen to reign as a God for a year and then killed – their hearts removed while alive, the body rolled down the stairs of the great pyramid and their flesh cooked and fed to the nobles.
Chicomecoatl was the known Goddess of Food and Produce, which extended to her being a Goddess of Fertility. The Aztec priests sacrificed young virgins to the Goddess – they would pour the blood of the virgin over the statue of the Goddess and wear their flayed skin.
Tlaloc, the God of Rain and Fertility was greatly feared. Aztec Children were sacrificed by drowning. Priests would collect children's tears to offer a better rain season.
Tonatiuh was the Sun God, patron God of warriors and leader of Tollan (their Heaven). The Aztec warriors would fulfil their duties by capturing prisoners to sacrifice. Tonatiuh demanded human sacrifice as a tribute, and so people had to sacrifice themselves by supplying the Sun with their hearts to propel it on its daily course.
Xipe Totec the Aztecs saw him as the God of Life-Death-Rebirth Deity, Agriculture, Disease, Goldsmiths and Seasons. Each year, before sacrifice, slaves were carefully flayed to produce a near whole skin, which priests then wore during the fertility rite that followed.
Mandatory Education
Rare in the rest of the world at the time, the Aztec Empire believed in compulsory education, regardless of gender or class. Boys received a broader education than girls.
The Beginning of Chocolate Addicted to Cacao Beans and Loved to this Day
Further, Cacao beans were a currency and a tribute or tax to the gods. Because the Aztecs couldn’t grow their own cacao beans, they would gain them through trade and taxes from conquered civilisations, so the Aztecs always had a supply.
Amazing Architects
Their majestic temples and pyramids were amazingly built by hand, stone by stone. These exceptional citizens relied purely on their physical strength, intellect and years of relentless, demanding toil to create the equivalent of a modern-day metropolis - the city of Tenochtitlan.
The Aztec’s motivation was to get closer to the skies where they could sacrifice to their gods from the top of their incredible architecture pieces.
Amazingly the Aztecs built their city ‘Tenochtitlan,’ on a human-made island in Lake Texcoco, today known as Mexico City.
Ancient Ruins
Image Credit: Christian Hipólito – CC BY-SA 2.0
“Teotihuacan – Birthplace of the Gods
Teōtīhuacān, named by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs, and loosely translated as “birthplace of the gods” is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in the Teotihuacan Valley of the Free and Sovereign State of Mexico, in present-day Mexico The earliest evidence of occupation dates from as early as 600 BC,…”. “This is a direct citation” HERITAGEDAILY read the FULL STORY, retrieved from https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/11/teotihuacan-birthplace-of-the-gods/136270
Wiped out By The Spaniards and Disease
Credit: www.wikiart.org/en/emanuel-gottlieb-leutze/storming-of-the-teocalli-by-cortez-and-his-troops-1848
In 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his forces entered Tenochtitlan. The fall of the Aztec Empire started with the Siege of Tenochtitlan, which lasted eight months. But one of the Aztecs' biggest killers was a disease brought by the Spaniards. In 1520 the Smallpox plague raged, lasting 70 days with an estimated 240,000 dying.
Tenochtitlan was almost totally destroyed by fire and cannon fire during the siege - what remained laid the foundation of Mexico today.
The Aztec Kingdom was a booming civilisation that died before its time, but their heritage still lives. Generations share this impressive empire's great stories to generation, and no doubt will continue for many years to come.
Tenochtitlan was almost totally destroyed by fire and cannon fire during the siege - what remained laid the foundation of Mexico today.
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