Templo Mayor
The pyramid the Spanish demolished in 1521 and then buried so thoroughly that the city forgot where it stood for four centuries.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Mexico City offline.
Built in 1325 as the Mexica empire's holiest site, destroyed by conquistadors, and swallowed by colonial construction, Templo Mayor's exact location was lost until modern excavation. What emerged are seven building phases layered on top of one another — the Mexica rebuilt their own temple six times — compressed into a single city block between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets.
What to look for
- Twin shrines at the pyramid summit — one for Huitzilopochtli (god of war) and one for Tlaloc (god of rain), each reached by its own separate staircase
- The base footprint: roughly 100 by 80 metres, the scale that once dominated the entire Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan
- The position of the central spire, devoted to Quetzalcoatl in his wind-god form, Ehecatl
Located between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets in the Historic Center of Mexico City, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site designated in 1987.
Templo Mayor is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Mexico City, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Mexico City pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Mexico City
- Mexico City Metropolitan CathedralTwo hundred and forty years of construction, built on top of the Aztec sacred precinct — every generation of New Spain left something inside.
- National Museum of AnthropologyThe stone that defined how the world pictures the Aztec calendar is here — and 3.7 million people came to see it last year.
- Autódromo Hermanos RodríguezA 4.3 km ribbon of asphalt where two brothers gave their names — and their lives — to Mexican motorsport.
- Aztec Sun StoneA 24-tonne disc of olivine basalt that spent centuries buried under Mexico City's main square — then mounted on a cathedral wall — before anyone called it art.
- Palacio de Bellas ArtesStarted in 1904, halted by revolution and a sinking city, finished in 1934 — thirty years of delay show in every detail.
- University Olympic Stadium (Estadio Olímpico Universitario)This is where Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to the sky in 1968 — one of sport's most charged political moments, in a stadium that held 83,700 people.