Díaz recounted that, after landing on the coast, they came across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. In The Conquest of New Spain, Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz gives several accounts of human sacrifices he witnessed at various cities within the Aztec empire. Parts of the body were sometimes cannibalized. The lifeless bodies of those sacrificed were kicked down the stairs, to be either cremated or given to the warrior responsible for the capture of the victim. Prisoners and slaves are taken to the top of the steep steps of the pyramid, where they are held down upon a slab of stone by two or more priests, while another priest sliced open the victims’ chest and extracted the still beating heart, which was then held towards the sky in honor of the Sun-god. Photo: ReutersĪt the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, human sacrifices were a routine spectacle. To obtain victims for sacrifice, the Aztecs frequently waged war with other tribes, and captured victims alive for use in ritual execution and offerings to the gods.Ī tower of human skulls unearthed in Mexico City. The Aztec people believed in the continual need for regular offering of human blood to keep their deities appeased, and to meet this need, the Aztecs sacrificed thousands of people. When Spanish explorers first arrived in Mexico in the early 16th century and made contact with the Aztecs, they were taken aback by the culture’s grisly rituals and the constant bloodshed.
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