Aztec Architecture

Aztec architecture is the building tradition of the Aztec, or Mexica, civilization, centered on their capital city of Tenochtitlan on the site of present day Mexico City. Its style favored symmetry, geometric massing and sweeping lines, and made extensive use of bas relief carving on walls, plazas and platforms to depict Aztec gods and ideals. The empire's most important structure was the Templo Mayor at the heart of Tenochtitlan, a pair of stepped pyramids rising side by side from a single huge platform: one dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc, representing the sacred Hill of Sustenance, and the other to the war god Huitzilopochtli, representing the Hill of Coatepec. First built in simple form in 1325 at the city's founding, the Templo Mayor was enlarged and rebuilt through seven successive major construction phases before the Spanish conquest.