My first stop in the morning was the Templo Mayor. The temple was one of the main temples in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, and it is located in the middle of downtown Mexico City, right next to the cathedral and the Zócalo. While a big archaeological site in the middle of a city with several million inhabitants seems a little unusual, it is only logical if you think about it: when the Spanish defeated the Aztec in the 16th century, they wanted to subjugate the Aztec as quickly and thoroughly as possible. What better way than to dismantle Aztec buildings and erect your own ones right on top of them? And the site of the most important temples would of course be the first choice as a building spot for your cathedral, wouldn't it? Well, that seems to have been pretty much what happened.
During construction work in the city center, there had always been findings of archaeological material; however, the large-scale excavation of Templo Mayor was only started in 1978, when the newest find was somewhat larger and more spectacular than the previous ones: a huge disk about three meters in diameter, depicting the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui.
As many Aztec buildings, Templo Mayor seems to have been a constant work in progress. Each new ruler decided to enlarge the temple in some manner. Some only reconstructed the main facade, while others encased the existing temple in an entirely new layer. Archaeologists have found seven layers so far - keep in mind that the temple was in use for only about 200 years, from its construction in the 14th century to Spanish conquest in the 16th century. These are two of the excavated layers:
This was one of the outermost layers, featuring two big serpent heads. If you look closely, you can see that there is some of their original coloring left:
Another part of the temple was a room with benches running around its sides. All the sockets were painted with bright, colorful pictures... showing scenes of human sacrifice, mostly. But hey, at least there were some bright paintings to go along with the sacrificing, weren't there?
Besides part of the temple buildings, there were also some statues that survived the centuries. One of them was this figure, called a chak-mool. I had already seen chak-mools in Maya ruins like Chichén Itzá. Nobody seems to be really sure what these figures represent, however. Probably either a deity or a ruler of some kind, but why he is always shown reclining and holding a pot is quite unclear.
In the temple, I also learned that Mexico City is sinking. The reason is basically a combination of heavy buildings and over-usage of groundwater, and the effect is that in the 20th century alone, parts of Mexico City have sunk about nine meters. Just imagine the effects this may have on things such as buildings, streets - and subways. The softness of the ground may have been another reason why the Aztecs built layer over layer on their temple: just another way to make sure the temple stays above the ground ;-)
Just across the street from Templo Mayor is the government palace. The building is open to the public, and there are some great wall painings to be seen in the second floor. As far as I know, most of them were done by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera; this one adorning the main stairwell is one of them:
After this, I went to visit the Palacio de Bellas Artes - the fine arts palace. The palace, apart from being a great building in itself, houses a museum and a theater. I had checked online to see if there was something interesting and affordable going on in the theater, and found that there was to be a free concert at noon today. I arrived at about 11:30, hoping there would still be seats left - and there were! So I got to enjoy this beautiful theater from the inside:
And, of course, the concert! I believe I'd never before seen a symphonic orchestra live on stage. On TV yes, of course, but I'd never actually been there. The orchestra played four pieces by contemporary Mexican composers - and three of the four were even present in the theater (the fourth couldn't attend, unfortunately, having passed away earlier this year.)
Of the four pieces, I instantly loved the third one, a very lively piece by Javier Álvarez called Metro Chabacano. Thanks to modern technology, the link on the title goes to YouTube where you can have a listen :-)
Another of the pieces was Imágenes del Quinto Sol by Federico Ibarra. In the theater, I had the impression that this was a rather monumental, even apocalyptic piece, but I think the part that is online is one of the less apocalyptic parts. And, of course, the concert included only the music, no dancers.
After the concert, I explored the museum in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. There were quite a few wall paintings and an exhibition about a stage designer, but the real highlight was the building itself. Check it out - isn't it stunning?
My last stop for the day was the modern art museum. The museum was housed in another beautifully designed building, albeit in a completely different style from the fine arts palace. Even the stairwell had some artwork:
The modern art museum is located in a huge park, the Bosque de Chapultepec, or forest of Chapultepec. On my way back to the metro, I found a crowd gathered around a rather nondescript tree - until I saw that the tree wasn't the reason for the crowd, but rather this cute Mexican gray squirrel eating a nut:
