Late Middle Ages · North America · Religion
1445
Aztec Templo Mayor Enlarged
1445
Moctezuma I ordered a massive expansion of the Great Temple at Tenochtitlan, adding new layers of stone and stucco over the existing pyramid in a construction project that employed thousands of laborers and consumed tribute stone hauled from conquered provinces across the Valley of Mexico. The twin shrines to Huitzilopochtli the war god and Tlaloc the rain deity rose higher above the lake city, visible from every causeway and canoe.