JB's side trip to Mexico City

So last week, I took a 14-hour bus through the night from P.E. to Mexico City. The ride took me back through the mountains, though not nearly as sinuous as our first trip to P.E., past Oaxaca, and into Mexico, or D.F. (Federal District), as it is called here in the homeland.

Mexico is a city inhabited by at least 23 million people - one the biggest (the biggest?) in the world. I stayed for two nights and three full days. I focused my time on the historic center and Teotihuacan - an ancient city that rose and fell between 100 and 1000 AD, before the rise of the Aztecs, or Mexicas.

D.F. feels like a big city, to be sure, it has a beat, it is international, it is cosmopolitan, but it is also very Mexican. But, despite its size, I did not feel the pressure of 23 million people. I did see the sprawling neighborhoods in the foothills outside of the center. There is tremendous poverty and inequity here, but that did not overwhelm on this quick visit.

The historic center of Mexico City today, is also the original center of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs' capital. In the early 1500s, when Hernan Cortez invaded, the spaniards report being speechless at the civilization that they found - hundreds of thousands of people, thriving markets, amazing architecture, palaces, temples. Aided by the peoples that he met along his way from the Gulf of Mexico, peoples living unhappily under Aztec rule, he, in a nutshell, killed Moctezuma, and began the arduous process of erasing all signs the Aztec empire, enslaving the Mexicans and other Mesoamericans, and plundering their wealth and land.

They buried the Aztec capitol, and built New Spain atop its ruins. It wasn't until the 1970s (!!!) when a workman was digging around a building foundation and happened upon a massive Aztec artifact that the remains of the central temple at the heart of the ancient city were discovered/rediscovered, recognized for its historic and cultural significance, and uncovered as part of a massive project to reveal El Templo Mayor. My first stop in the city.

At least seven concentric pyramids were built here by the Aztecs, via slaves and conscripted labor. A bigger one each time atop the previous one. Engineering masterpieces to be sure. A place of rites and ceremonies and sacrifice and heavenly observation, of appealing to gods and goddesses of rain, wind, fertility, and war.

Mexico City is built at about 6000 feet, on an ancient lake bed, surrounded by volcanic lands. The previous city was built with black and red basalt from the surrounding mountains.  Remains include sculptures and images of snakes, skulls, frogs and eagles.

The on-site museum displays much of the material found during the recent excavations - astonishing stonework, jewelry, ceramics, weaponry, etc.

Amazing fact for the day - Aztecs traded goods and ideas with people as far away as what is now Utah (turquoise) and Nicaragua in Central America. The name Nicaragua has its roots in an Aztec word meaning "the edge of the Aztecs' reach or lands." Everything moved on foot or by boat. Wow.

Below are a few photos from the city: El Templo Mayor and the City Center. 

This is a carved stone box, reflecting corn - maize - as a central theme 

in their culture.

This 8-ft diameter stone sculpture is what the workman bumped up against in the 1970s as he was digging beneath a foundation. It shows the goddess of the Moon, cut into four sections, to reflect the moons 4 phases.

These statutes were laid against the stairs of one pyramid, just before it was covered by the construction of a new one atop of it. The black and red basalt stones were covered in a 6 inch layer of stucco. Huge pyramids and walls all bright white.

This a detail from a 'stella' - a large stone statute etched with symbols and gliphs that tell stories, relate history, and commemorate key events and dates. These were used all over Mesoamerica to record history, for thousands of years until the arrival of the Europeans.

A statue excavated from the El Templo Mayor.

The snake played a central role as a symbol of power and fertility for Aztecs, and many others of Mesoamerica.

Stairs leading into the "Eagle Warriors" quarters in El Templo Mayor. Eagle Warriors were elite fighters.

A wall of skull sculptures inside the Eagle Warriors' quarters.

This is the base of a column that the Spaniards had used at one time in the cathedral. On the bottom of the column, you can see what are snake scales. The Spaniards destroyed the Aztec temples (forced the Aztecs to destroy their own temples, and used the material to build a new cathedral immediately next door.

Here you can get a sense of the pyramids that were built atop pyramids over a several hundred years. Each one bigger and higher than the previous one. Built by the Aztecs with slaves and 'tribute' labor - labor from peoples dominated by the Aztecs.

Frogs were powerful creatures/gods for the Aztecs - they called for the rains to come.

Two Frances Botero sculptures in front of El Museo Bellas Artes in Mexico City

This is a shot inside the Cathedral. The floor is wildly uneven, rolling, as the lake bed upon which this church is built settles and subsides.

Detail of the ceiling from the Gran Hotel, built by Tiffany's Glass Company a century ago, during the reign of Portfirio Diaz, a dictator that ruled Mexico for more than three decades.

The Gran Hotel is airy, beautiful -- grand even.

A sidewalk bench in Mexico City.

Finally, a little political/cultural commentary on the sidewalk of Mexico City - Mickey Mouse covered in the logos of lots of U.S. and multi-national corporations.