Aztecs-History-Unit-L6---Life-in-Tenochtitlan-Information-Sheet.pdf

Life in Tenochtitlan Tenochtitlan Huitzilopochtli appeared to one of the priests and told him to search for the eagle on a cactus who was eating a serpent. That cactus, was called tenochtli. In among the rushes, at the edge of a spring, they saw...

Life in Tenochtitlan Tenochtitlan Huitzilopochtli appeared to one of the priests and told him to search for the eagle on a cactus who was eating a serpent. That cactus, was called tenochtli. In among the rushes, at the edge of a spring, they saw an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a snake. The Aztecs built their city at this place on the island of Tenoch. At first their city was built with sticks and hay because they had no rock. The most important building in the city was the temple to HUITZILOPOCHTLI. In the time of the Great Speaker CHIMALPOPOCA the Aztecs began to build their temple with rock around 1418. Moctezuma I built the base of the temple… TIZOC continued the building. The next Great Speaker AHUIZOTL, finished the temple in the year of 1487. Nothing much now remains of the Great Temple.... The Templo Mayor... but historians, archaeologists and anthropologists have worked together to work out what it must have been like. Life in Tenochtitlan The House of the Priests The priests were frightening to look at! They painted their skins and were often covered in wounds where they had beaten themselves. They probably wore dark cloaks, sewn with skulls and tall head-dresses of feathers. Their hair was long - for a priest may not cut or comb his hair - and was stiff with the blood from many sacrifices. Life in Tenochtitlan The Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli At the top of steps wide enough for twenty men to walk side by side there are the twin temples. The blue and white temple of Tlaloc and the red temple of Huitzilopochtli, decorated with white, carved skulls. In front of each temple is a huge stone - the sacrifice stone. The School of Priests Boys from rich families come to this school to learn to be priests. It takes many years to be a priest and the work is hard. As well as learning to read and write, the boys had to clean the school and work on the temple farms. There were two types of school, one for the rich and one for the poor. Both boys and girls had to go to school. In school boys were taught arts and crafts, and the girls were taught to cook and other necessities. Great Speaker’s Palace Inside the Palace lived the Great Speaker... or Emperor to his friends. The Great Speaker was elected by a council of nobles. The Great Speaker's assistant was sometimes known as the MAIN VOICE. Life in Tenochtitlan Temple of Quetzalcoatl Nothing much survives of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl... this carving is from another city... Teotihuacan which was abandoned before the Aztecs arrived. The Western Gatehouse The causeway from the western gatehouse leads to the market. Life in Tenochtitlan The Rack of Skulls On the Rack of Skulls (tzompantli) are placed the heads of those who have been sent to the house of the sun. The heads are pushed on to wooden poles and laid in long rows. To support the poles there are two towers made from more heads, held together with cement. The Ball-Game Park The ball-game was played in a large courtyard with a high wall around it. The court was narrow in the centre and wide at each end. In the centre of each side was a ring-shaped stone with a hole in the centre. The players were in two teams, one at each end of the court. A heavy rubber ball was placed in the centre. Points were scored for moving the ball past the other team into the wide part of the court. The ball could only be moved with hips, knees and elbows. If one team got the ball through the hole in the ring stone, they won the game... it's said that the losing team lost their heads!! Fine Houses In this section of the precinct were houses belonging to rich nobles, the pipiltin. The houses were probably white, with flat roofs. They were very large, with many rooms and were on two levels.