Mexico City
With 25 million people,
one of the largest cities in the world.
But this was once a wilderness area,
a valley of salt water lakes and swamps
surrounded by mountains and active volcanoes.
At the beginning of the 14th century
a tribe of nomads called the "meshica" settled here.
They gave their name to Mexico and its capital,
but they're better known as the "aztecs"
The aztecs transformed themselves from nomads
into rulers of the most power empire Central America had ever know.
But after only 200 years, it will all be gone.
Eye witness accounts of aztec life
intricate illustrated records
portray a highly sophisticated and literate society.
Yet there was a dark side to aztec life.
They lived in fear.
Ritual human sacrifice was carried out on a scale
otherwise unknown throughout history.
And it's for this above all, that the aztecs are remembered.
How did human sacrifice find a place within such a civilized society ?
Who were the aztecs, really ?
Barbarians, or great world civilization ?
When the spanish conquistadors first saw Tenochtitlan, the aztec capital
it was so beautiful, that they thought they must be dreaming.
The called it the Venice of the Americas.
At the height the Aztec empire, in 1519,
the spaniards had landed on the gulf coast of Mexico.
Hearing about the famed riches of the aztecs
they were here to make their fortunes.
This is the only place left where you still get a feel
of how it was in the ancient aztec capital.
A city built entirely on water.
And you never know, maybe an aztec holiday
was a bit like this.
With over 200.000 inhabitants
at its peak, Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities of the world.
Today's Mexico City was built on the same site.
This area still supplies the city with flowers
just as it did 500 years ago
for the rituals in the aztec capital.
It was these rituals that so shocked the spaniards.
We saw the men being dragged up the steps to be sacrificed
the priests lay them down on their backs
and cutting open their chests, drew out their palpitating hearts
wich they offered to the idols before them.
Then, they flung the bodies down the steps.
Interpreting the cultures of mexican history
has been a lifetime study for novelist Carlos Fuentes.
The whole conception of the world
of the aztecs is so alien to out modern sense of the word
that we can only guess, we can only hint
The aztec regime, to put it in a nutshell
was a regime at odds with itself.
How could the aztecs create a beautiful city
with such violence at its heart ?
Clues lie in what the aztecs found when they first arrived in the valley of Mexico.
They were originally a nomad tribe of native-american indians
living in the north of what is now Mexico.
The tribal prophecy told them to journey south,
and to build a city where they saw a eagle landing on a cactus.
According to their history, it was here, in this inhospitable swamp land
that the prophecy came true.
At the edge of the valley, 30 miles north
the aztecs came across Teotihuacan
People had first settled in this place 1000 years before the aztecs arrived here.
They have long since disappeared.
The aztecs discovered a great ghost city
The architecture seemed to reflect the ideas of the aztecs themselves.
They even adopted it as their own.
The gods that were carved into this ancient temples,
the rain god, and the feathered serpent, who would eventually bring them to grief.
David Carrasco's work
explores the profound impact of other cultures on the aztecs.
The aztecs of the 15th and 16th century
would have been drawn to Teotihuacan
because of the monumentality of the place
Teotihuacan is one of the great
world cities, and the largest ceremonial center in MesoAmerica.
The Aztecs looking for their own origins
their own legitimacy
would have been attracted to this city.
With their nomadic background
the aztecs envy the great architectural heritage and history
of their predecessors in the valley of Mexico.
They took many things from this place
including the setting for their creation myth.
The aztec creation story
described how the universe had already
passed through 4 eras, or stages of the sun.
The symbols for each age are depicted on the great aztec sunstone.
4 feet thick, 12 feet in diameter
and weighing 24 tons,
it ws discovered in 1790 beneath Mexico City central square.
At its center, it's the face of the sun, a sacrificial knife in its mouth
According to the aztec myth, each age had lasted hundreds of years and ended in destruction.
When the fourth sun entered, the world was left in darkness.
Now, they imagined that the gods gathered here to build a fire,
and contemplate how they could bring fourth another sun.
To give the new sun energy to be born,
and to travel on its journey across the sky, the gods sacrificed themselves
jumping into the fire, and cutting out their hearts
their own blood giving life to the fifth sun,
the dawning of the aztec age.
In this remarkable story we see
not only the idea of Teotihuacan is the primordial origin of the aztec sun
we also see the participation of the gods in a self sacrifice
so that human life can then go on.
This sets up four of the aztec's-- , the crucial idea about human sacrifice
wich was that when they sacrificed themselves, they were paying a debt,
back to the gods, who had created the sun for them, here in Teotihuacan.
The aztecs believed that the daily journey of the sun
could only continue while it was supported with blood.
Human sacrifice on the american continent
is most often associated with the aztecs,
but in fact it had been practiced for centuries by previous civilizations,
including the builders of Teotihuacan, the maya, and the toltecs.
And all people that are very close to the origins
have an enormous fear that the world will end.
That once the sun sets, it will never appear again.
That the forces of nature are extremely powerful, and have to be pacified.
And one of the ways of pacifying, traditionally, is through sacrifice.
In the hostile environment of the Valley of Mexico,
the aztecs fell to the mercy of the powerful forces of nature.
500 years ago, the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the valley
were clearly visible from the aztec capitol
rare today, given Mexico City's smog.
Here, 30 miles outside the city
you get a clear view of what the aztecs would have seen.
The landscape holds vital clues
to understanding how the aztecs believed they could influence the gods.
Art historian Dick Townsend was the first to map this area.
Aztec shrines like this one mark sacred locations
the miniature pyramid steps echoing temple architecture.
These were, traditionally, places to remember gods of the natural world
to appease and support them, by making offerings
flower, food, drink , or blood.
Offerings would be made in these receptacles, and it would run down over the face
this boulder stood upright, and formed part of that whole ensemble
And then, the ensemble itself
really looks towards the great rain-producing mountains
of the Valley of the Mexico, mount Clalo
and then, more distantly Popocatepetl.
It's a replication here, in stone, of what you see in the natural setting
So, in effect, this grouping of rocks forms a kind of miniature world.
To pacify the forces of nature
The aztecs turned not just to the gods
but to their own sophisticated technology.
They have seen the eagle land on a salt water lake, 32 miles long
Building a city here and sustaining its people, meant radically transforming the landscape.
They were able to dam and drain some of the salt water
and channel fresh water in its place.
They transformed the swampland on the outskirts of the city
building islands, known as "cinampas" or floating gardens.
Nowadays there's just a dwindling number of mexicans
who still farm the land here, using traditional methods
wich have hardly changed since ancient aztec times.
Dredging mud from the bottom of the lake,
farmers built up layers of rich, fertile soil
and plant willow trees with roots to stabilize the garden platform.
500 years ago, these plots of land were the bread basket of the aztec capitol,
supplying its inhabitants with much of their food.
But if the rainy season was late, the crops will fail.
To make sure this didn't happen, the aztecs turn to their gods.
They believe they could influence the gods by creating idealized replicas of the natural world.
It was this believe that inspired all their temples
from the smallest shrine in the countryside,
to the largest pyramids in the capitol.
But it's not just the shared inspiration wich connects the shrine with the city.
it was carefully positioned to form a continuous line of sacred sites
joining the rain-producing mountains, to the heart of the aztec capitol.
The aztecs believed that this connection
would ensure the seasons stayed in balance,
and the empire flourished.
Great mountains, the miniature rock mountains,
then the hill, and then ultimately
the pyramid of Teotihuacan, they all form part of the symbolic continuum
that take the thoughts and the prayers of the city dwellers
out to the remote parts of their world.
As precious as jade, is how the aztecs described their capitol, Tenochtitlan.
The great pyramid, or the temple major, as it is known honour the most significant gods of the aztecs.
Tlaloc, the god of rain and water,
and Huitzilopochtli, the warrior god associated with the sun.
The bodies of sacrificial victims were flung down onto the stone,
11 feet in diameter, depicting the moon goddess
cut into pieces by the warrior god of the sun.
Its discovery in 1978 led to the excavation of the Great Pyramid.
Archeologists have uncovered a series of successive layers of construction.
Making sense of this jungle of walls around me is frankly , a nightmare.
It turns out that the temple is enlarged at least 7 times
with the pyramid superimposed on each other.
They were building onto success.
Despite their unpromising choice of a place to settle
the aztecs flourished.
Crowns of between 25 and 60 thousand people
gathered daily at the Tlatalonco, site of the biggest markets, supplying the aztec metropolis.
Here you could buy anything, from cactus, to live animals.
We share many of the same foods
avocados, squash, beans, chilies or corn
ground into flour to make tortillas
a staple diet of the aztecs, just as they are for today's mexicans.
All this abundance was the product of their own ingenuity
but the aztecs gave credit to their gods, and made offerings accordingly.
Hoping to uncover more about the offerings,
in 1990 scientists began to analyze soil samples of the Great Pyramid.
Analysis is still in progress,
but some extraordinary results are beginning to emerge.
Over 50 different varieties of plants have been identified.
Flower and seeds, were a vital ingredient of the
offerings witch the aztecs buried in the foundations of the Great Pyramid.
Over 135 different offering groups have been uncovered.
Even these offerings represented a miniature version of the entire universe in harmony.
The levels of existence, the Overworld, the Earth, and the Underworld
were represented by different plants, animals, and artifacts.
Xiuhtecuhtle, the fire god, gave energy and life to the universe.
Alongside him is a vast depicting Tlaloc, the god of rain and water
tilted on its side, to encourage rain.
Jade bees represent water drops
Tlaloc is recognizable by his goggled eyes and serpent nose
you can still find serpents among the ruins of the Great Pyramid.
In the egyptian world, the pyramids were used as interior spaces for burials, but in mesoamerica
pyramids and the ceremonial centers were exterior spaces, they were theaters.
Theaters for the performance of the relationship between the people and the gods
between nature and daily life.
In these theaters, the aztec gods and goddesses were represented by sculptures.
This enormous figure, over 8 feet tall and weighing 12 tons
is the earth goddess, Tlalteuctli
This is a solid block, that cannot be penetrated
It doesn't even have a sex, it is a massive sculpture
with no penetration whatsoever,
and it was Baudelaire who, when he saw reproductions of the aztec sculpture in Paris, in the 19th century
said : this is a barbaric art
Barbaric, in the sense that is completely alien to the human.
There is very little humanity in the most of aztec sculpture
It is a brutal assertion of the powers of the gods, and of the goddesses.
They are different from you and me, they are different from women and men,
do not forget it.
The goddess is portrayed as a decapitated figure,
two great serpents representing streams of blood, flowing from her neck.
For archeologist Elisabeth Baquedano
these images are keys to the aztec concept of life and death.
Blood, of course, is the essence of our body,
is what makes us alive, and there's nothing more precious
in ourselves, than our blood.
Blood was given to the gods, in order for them to survive.
But how did they used blood in their rituals ?
Only a few yards separate the ruins of the Great Pyramid
from one of the few coveted places in this vast sacred complex.
It's clear that only a building of real importance would be sighted so close
to the heart of this precinct.
But the true explanation for its privileged position, only became clear when the building was excavated.
Three distinct sections were uncovered
progressing in sacred significance.
A porticul opened into an outer hall
where 2 sculpted warriors stood.
Archeologists believe that this is was a temple to the eagle warriors.
They wore beautiful eagle costumes
and were loved and rewarded by the rulers, just like the knights of the royal court.
The inner sanctum could only be reached by passing two terrifying figures.
This is the god of death, Mictlantecuthle, its protruding liver- an image of regeneration.
These figures guarded the most sacred area of the temple
a four-sided patio, decorated with four-petal flowers.
In order to investigate the rituals that took place here,
scientists are collaborating with the archeologists.
Chemical analysis of samples from the plaster floor
indicates a presence of a variety of substances.
As a purification ceremony, copal
may have been burnt in these huge braziers, depicting Tlaloc, the rain god.
Most telling of all, the scientists have found tracers of albumin
indicating the presence of blood,
where these benches are decorated with clusters of flowers.
The painting marks a spot where real clusters of flowers once stood.
They contained the spines of the maguay cactus
and sharpened animal bones,
witch the eagle warriors used to pierce the earlobe, thigh, arm, tongue or penis
offering their own blood to the gods.
This ritual blood letting, auto sacrifice as it's called
was the most common form of aztec sacrifice.
In this relief, warriors proceed towards the cluster of flowers to perform this ceremony.
Perhaps the aztec rulers themselves came here to shed their own blood.
After extensive analysis of their results
scientists have discovered the highest concentration of albumin
around the gods of death.
Their results confirm the accuracy of the aztec records
depicting large quantities of blood, poured over these gods.
Archeologists believe that this ceremony marked the death of one ruler,
and the inauguration of the next.
A reminder of the continuous cycle of life and death in the natural world.
And the rituals seemed to work.
Within just 140 years of their arrival in the Valley of Mexico
the aztecs conquered lands stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the east,
to the Pacific coast, in the west, more than 300 miles away.
By the time the spaniards arrived, 60 years later, the empire stretched as far south as the borders of Guatemala
The aztecs forced each conquered state to supply them with tribute
Jade, turquoise, obsidian and alabaster for the ritual offerings
buried at the great pyramid.
Aztec society was itself a pyramid with a strict hierarchy.
At its top, the ruler himself, combining spiritual, political, and military powers
In this frise the ruler is depicted triumphantly grasping the forelocks of conquered leaders
But the stone itself served a much bloodier purpose.
Victims were tethered to the center
and provided only with dummy weapons.
Warriors fought them to the death.
Both aztecs and their enemies were sacrificed.
For the aztecs it was an honor,
but it was a powerful tool for intimidating enemies.
Rulers were expected to prove their worth
by capturing live victims for sacrifice to the sun god.
And their blood then, ritually
makes the land fruitful, it fertilizes the land.
So that in that way, the blood of the slain
will contribute towards the rebirth
of vegetation in the rainy season and the flowers that go all with that.
So that blood and flowers is a way of referring to this great cycle of life
and the rhythm of human activities that unfolds within the changing seasons.
Looking at these bloody rituals it can be difficult to understand the people that performed them,
and easy to condemn them as a brutal alien race.
Perhaps in the context of their age, the aztecs have been judged harshly.
But in the same time they were sacrificing people we have the Inquisition going on in Spain,
witch people being killed for heresy
we have criminals and political enemies,
having their heads placed on stakes on the Tower of London
And so there-- there's plenty of barbarity at this time to go around for almost all people.
It's easier for people to see another group as being strange and different
and, look how quaint, look how bizarre, look how weird they are
rather than go through the actual difficult research
of trying to make them explicable,
of trying to make them human and understandable in our own terms.
Making the aztecs human and understandable
is a challenge for David Carrasco
Many of our descriptions of ancient societies are so simple
but in fact the aztecs show us the human beings are complex.
To take the simple notion of their bloody people
and to show that they're both people after the blood and after the flower
is to bring us to a wonderful image of understanding
and asking about the nature of complexity.
Aside from the violence it seems there was a much gentler side to aztec life.
An extraordinary love of beauty emerges in their most popular of their art.
Poets were loved and highly revered
One of the most famous was also a great architect of the empire.
It's not true that we come to this world to live
We come only to sleep, only to dream.
It's an extremely beautiful poetry
witch , essentially, sings about flingliness of life
the brevity of life, the inevitability of death
the price we must pay to be on earth
the beauty of the things that surround us, flowers, love, women, children
all this things are celebrated by the aztecs,
and speak of a humane spirit
wich I think is not only similar, but superior to ours.
Our body is a flower, as grass becomes green in the springtime
so our hearts will open and blossom
and then , they will die.
The god of poetry was also god of flowers
music , and joy.
But while he's depicted covered in flowers
he also wears the flayed skin of the sacrificial victims.
Life and death went hand in had for the aztecs.
The blood ritual seemed to sustain their expanding empire.
But when the rhythm of the seasons break down,
Their worst fears were realized.
Droughts struck the Valley of Mexico in 1450,
lasting for 4 years
Aztec record show diseased and starving people,
thousands died,
perhaps the gods needed more.
Among the remains of Tlatalonco
site of the great market and the second pyramid complex
archeologists made a horrifying discovery
?? from the desperate years of draught.
On the threshold of the temple
they found the bone remains of around 40 children.
The bones were grouped together with precious ritual objects
an offering to the gods.
Children's bones dating from the same period
have also been found at the Great Pyramid.
It was not unusual for the aztecs to sacrifice young children
but these numbers are exceptional.
The victims are thought of been between 2 and 6 years of age.
Scientists are currently analyzing the remains,
to find out why these children were chosen.
By extracting and testing samples of their DNA genetic material
the scientists would discover their sex and more about their health.
Finally the terrible years of draught ended.
and the aztecs built a series of new temples
giving thanks to the gods, so that it would never happen again.
On the hill of Texcoxsingo
on the line witch joins the mountain with the Great Pyramid
the ruler chose his men to design a ritual center
dedicated to the god of rain and his consort, the water goddess.
Historians had known about this place from the aztec records.
but it was Dick Townsend who first uncovered its significance.
I simply had a kind of premonition
that this amazing conical hill was going to be very, very important.
And sure enough, upon coming up the trail
and seeing that great tank of water, and realizing that streams of water
were flowing in here, I thought this is the sacred mountain.
Sculpting the landscape, the aztecs created a beautiful, ideal model
intended to bring rain to the real world.
Water channeled from the mountains via an aqueduct
flowed around the hill, filling baths and basins, and shrines around the way.
Walkways follow the channels
passed for ritual processions by priests and rulers.
This paradise garden of flowing water
is an extraordinary testimony to the skills and beliefs of its architects.
Above the shrine, a temple celebrates the poet ruler who conceived this place.
Higher still, a temple honors the rain god.
The maze goddesses were cut into the rock, to ensure the fertility of the land.
The terraces below were once covered with plants and trees
some brought from the farthest ends of the empire.
The aztecs had a remarkable knowledge of horticulture
experimenting with species new to the Valley of Mexico.
They were also renown herbalists and healers.
But all the healing wisdom , and all the offerings to the gods
would be powerless against the disaster witch was to come.
Over a year before the spaniards arrived , in 1519
according to the aztec record, a series of omens warned of impending catastrophe.
The temple of the warrior god of the sun suddenly burst into flames
comets and lightning followed
and the leader of the time, Montezuma had a vision
people coming as conquerors and riding on deer.
Marco Polo had been to China, Vasco da Gama had discovered the route to the Cape
The mexican world was extremely closed in.
It was absolutely hermetically closed.
so that the arrival of the spaniards
must have been like the arrival of people from Mars to us would be today
totally unsuspecting aliens
The shock must've been profound, it’s one of the reasons that explains the downfall of the aztec empire.
In a sense, I think the aztec empire died of astonishment, more than anything else.
by extraordinary coincidence, the 500 conquistadors, led by Hernan Cortez
arrived in 1519, the exact year when an aztec prophecy
Foretold the return of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god.
Feathered serpents represent not only the precious powers of the earth
but also the flowers of the earth
the ability of the earth to be reborn, in a kind of optimistic cycle.
That was very important to aztec life.
Symbol of Quetzalcoatl also: he was a myth of eternal return
that he would return periodically, in the form of a ruler
the form of a great priest, of a great man
He's a symbol who’s there in the beginning of history
the center of history, as a great creator god
and then, at the end of their history, as someone who returns, at first to save them
but then, in the face of spanish arms and disease, is not able to allow aztec life to go on.
The prophecy suggested that the returning Quetzalcoatl would be fair-skinned
and bring peace and justice.
Could this be why the spanish soldiers were welcome so warmly.
Hernando Cortez described his impression in letters to Charles V, the king of Spain.
I cannot describe one hundredth part of all the things that could be imagined.
I will say only that these people live almost like those in Spain,
and in as much harmony and order as there.
and considering they are barbarous, and so far from the knowledge of God
and cut off from all civilized nations
it is truly remarkable to see what they've achieved in all things.
But there was another reason why the arrival of the spaniards was so fortuitous.
Over the previous 3 decades, aztec demands for tribute
had sparked growing unrest among the tribes they had conquered.
The incidence on sacrifice increased dramatically.
The worst occasion, in 1487,
when records claim 80000 people were killed
a bloody example to deter further unrest.
The spaniards had come not just to conquer lands for their king
but to make money for themselves.
Joining forces with the aztecs tribal enemies
gave Hernan Cortez the opportunity he was looking for.
So, when the whole conquest was carried out
Cortez takes credit for it,
Cortez is constantly talking about of what he and his men are doing
but we are still talking about a few hundred of spaniards
backed up by hundred of thousands of indian allies
so the conquest of the aztecs, is not a spanish conquest of the aztecs and their empire,
but an indian conquest.
With their crossbows and guns, the spaniards were able to open up the aztec lines,
enabling their indian allies to carry on the battle with their traditional weapons.
But where the aztecs fought to take live captives for sacrifices
these enemies shot to kill.
The aztec nation as such disappeared with the conquest.
There is...
There are a number of poems and chants associated with the downfall of the aztec world.
and one of them says : Cry, oh cry,
for we have lost the aztec nation.
Throughout the aztec empire, the spanish settlers destroyed pyramids and temples,
using the stones to build their own churches.
On the site of the Great Pyramid complex, the spaniards built their cathedral.
It became the center of their capitol, today's Mexico City.
In the new empire, spanish became the dominant language.
The spaniards forced the indians to work for them, and many were treated with great cruelty.
People often condemn the aztecs, but when you look at what happened when the spaniards came
their society is been called a mass sacrifice society, because
within 100 years, 90% of the indigenous population
in Mexico, in the new world, was gone.
The worst killer was disease, the settlers brought smallpox, tifos
and other diseases new to the american continent
to witch the native population had no resistance.
And the fact remains today, that we're only
10% of the population's pure indian.
pure indian cultures, that they've managed to survive
over 5 centuries, is a miracle itself
That the brutality of the modern
republican regime's towards indian population
has been more brutal, more destructive, than even that of the original spanish conquistadors.
But within just 2 generations
a new world was born out of the death of aztec empire.
A mixed , or mestiso people.
The mestiso world, witch appeared
very soon after the conquest of Mexico, of the birth of
a new race,
the descendants of the europeans and indians
witch form the majority of the mexicans today
happened very quickly, it was in stark contrast with
the english colonization of what is today United States, North America.
This village is less than an hour's drive from Mexico City
but what's extraordinary, is that the people here still speak Nahuatl,
the language of the ancient aztecs,.
And the people here aren't doing that just for fun,
it's a crucial part of their identity as modern mexicans.
Every Saturday, the village school opens for extra classes.
Nahuatl speakers come to study the roots of their language,
and the aztec historical records.
Their children lean both spanish and Nahuatl
one of the most widely used of the 47 indian languages
still spoken in Mexico.
But the combined legacy of the aztecs and the conquistadors
is not just visible in the small communities who cherish their aztec past
it emerges most clearly in the religious practices of the majority of modern mexicans.
Their roots dates from the conquest,
when the indians recognized familiar concepts.
The symbol of Christianity
was a man who had been sacrificed, Jesus Christ,
that, instead of demanding sacrifice from them,
the god of Christianity sacrificed himself.
He was on the cross. This brought thousands of indians into Christianity
an enormous believe in faith on the god who dared turn the tables
of their whole concept of the world
and instead of demanding sacrifice from the people, he said : I sacrifice myself for you.
This extraordinary merging of cultures and belief
is the foundation of modern Mexico.
We're moving into a world
where the cultures are mixing
communicating and transforming each other in remarkably creative ways
and what you have coming out of the aztec world,
is what of the primary examples that seems to me of what are our understanding of the future is going to be.
Mexico still shows many of the aztec's problems
A growing urban population
The threat of earthquakes and volcanoes
and a natural world witch has lost its balance,
not because of the gods, but because of the environmental abuse.
And just like the aztecs, many mexicans have become nomads and migrants.
The aztec world contains many warnings for the modern world.
It gives us a profound lesson about the brittleness
of any given culture and civilization
and it teaches us to be always on the alert,
await the arrival of the alien, what is different, what challenges
our own prejudices, our own preconceptions
of what the world and life are all about.