A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan,: and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.Maudslay, Alfred Percival
History
A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan,: and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.
Maudslay, Alfred Percival
Huitzilopochtli (Aztec deity); Indian architecture -- Mexico; Mexico City (Mexico) -- Antiquities
Motolinia, Torquemada, Ixtlilxochitl, and Gomara agree in placing the
two oratories or shrines on the extreme eastern edge of the platform, so
that there was only just room for a man to pass round them on the east
side. The two oratories were separate one from the other, each being
enclosed within its own walls with a doorway towards the west. The
oratory of Huitzilopochtli was the larger of the two and stood to the
south. The oratory of Tlaloc stood to the north. No measurements are
given of the area covered by these two oratories, but there is no
suggestion that they were large buildings[7] except in height. The roof
and probably the upper stages were made of wood (Torquemada), and we
know that they were burnt during the siege.
HEIGHT:—
ANONIMO—“Ten or twelve men’s bodies.”
TORQUEMADA—“Each in three stories, each story of great height.”
MOTOLINIA—“The Great Temples had three stories above the altars, all
terraced and of considerable height.”
Ixtlilxochitl gives the height of the great Teocalli as over
twenty-seven brazas (150′). If this means the height from the ground to
the top of the Oratory of Huitzilopochtli it would very nearly agree
with the height given on the hypothetical section on Plate B.
In the description of the map of the city published in 1524 [see
‘Conquest of New Spain,’ vol. iii. (Hakluyt Society)] I called attention
to the “full human face probably representing the Sun” between the
Oratories of the Teocalli of Huitzilopochtli. The map is, I believe, in
error in placing the Teocalli on the west side of the Temple Enclosure,
but that the full human face is intended to represent the sun is
confirmed by the following passage from Motolinia[8]:—
“Tlacaxipenalistli.—This festival takes place when the sun stood in
the middle of Huichilobos, _which was at the Equinox_, and because
it was a little out of the straight[9] Montezuma wished to pull it
down and set it right.”
[Illustration]
The map of 1524 was probably drawn from a description given by one of
the Conquistadores, and if we turn to the pages of Gomara, an author who
was never in Mexico and who wrote only from hearsay, it is easy to see
how such a mistake in orientation arose.
GOMARA, Historia General de las Indias—Conquista de Mejico. (El Templo
de Mejico.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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