Santa Cecilia Acatitlan
The Acatitlan is a popular tourist site and shows a lot of the popular Mesoamerican architecture. Back in the Mesoamerican times their structures were often step pyramids with a temple on top. The Acatitlan faces out to a cobbled stone plaza which many archaeologists believe was used as a public arena. The pyramid has two temples, one on the south side and one on the north side. The North temple was dedicated to Tlaloc and The South to Huitzilopochtli.
The Acatitlan also known as “The Place among the Reeds” is an Aztec pyramid. This building is located in Santa Cecilia and back in the Aztec times the Acatitlan would have been right next to the great Lake Texcoco. Which explains it name because Reeds are tall, grass like, and grow in water. It is also located on the Picacho Crown Cross or North of modern day Mexico City. Unlike most archaeological sites in Santa Cecilia, the archaeologists decided to rebuild it as it most likely was back in ancient times.
Only one basement isn’t in ruins today and the basement could have been on the buildings main structure. The pyramid has one staircase that leads to the temple at the top. They believe it was dedicated to the worship of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc just like the building of Tenayuca. Huitzilopochtli is the Mesoamerican god of war, sun, human sacrifice, and protector of the city of Tenochtitlan. Tlaloc was also a very important god in the Aztec religion. He was the god of rain, fertility, and water
The method for construction is believed to have been one consecutive construction after another. They can detect that at least 4 different time periods were involved in the construction of this pyramid. The interior of this building is still of the best preserved structures. However, the exterior structures were removed in the 16th century. They used the stones to build a church next to the pyramid.
The architect and archaeologist Eduardo Pareyon Moreno restored and secured the Acatitlan’s basements in 1962. Eduardo also rebuilt the temple on top of the pyramid. Eusebio Dávalos one of the archaeologists who help restore the pyramid collected artifacts from the pyramid and displays them in his museum. Most of his collection consists of ceramic and stone material. To this day the Acatitlan remains one of the best preserved structures of the Mesoamerican time period.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cecilia_Acatitlan
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