The spiritual heart of the Aztec Empire was its capital city, Tenochtitlan. The Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan was created by the ruler of the Aztecs in 1466, Montecuzoma I. It wasn't finished until the rule of Montecuzoma II in 1508. It was rebuilt seven times and enlarged eleven times. It was described by conquistadors as "another Venice".
The pyramid's base was square; 150 yards to a side. It rose a total 70 yards high and had smooth sides. The staircase going up was actually two different staircases, one side was for people going up and the other side was for people going down. Dividing the two staircases was a gutter for blood to flow down. At the top, there were two shrines on each side dedicated to the water god and the war god.
Like all other pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice. Various sources describe how they sacrificed human victims on each of their eighteen festivities. There was one festivity for each of their 20 day months. The first human sacrifice reported was the skinning of the king Cóxcox's daughter. They would also perform a series of rituals to their unlucky neighbor tribes, and donate the blood to Acolnahuacatl, an Aztec god. When they knew the gods were no longer thirsty, the sacrificing stopped. It could go on as long as an entire weekend, just to please the gods.
Michael Harner estimated that the number of people sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century was as high as 250,000 per year.The Aztecs reported that they had sacrificed an estimated 80,400 prisoners in the course of four days. Four tables were arranged at the top of the temple so that the victims could be thrown down the sides. Another archeologist estimated that one in five children were sacrificed a year.
There are many theories as to why the Aztecs liked human sacrifice so much. One of them is religious reasons; that the spilling of human blood is needed to sustain the universe. Another explanation is political power. As in, using human sacrifice as a tool for intimidating and controlling the hostile people. Or there's the socio/psychological reason, linking the practice to unconscious factors, such as a response to traumatic events. And finally, there's the ecological theory, in which human sacrifice is a response to overpopulation.
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