In the historic centre of Mexico City, only a short distance from the Metropolitan Cathedral, the remains of the Templo Mayor reveal a city beneath the modern city. I visited the archaeological site in October 2025. Standing among the excavated walls, it was possible to sense how closely the capital of present-day Mexico is connected to Tenochtitlan, the island metropolis built by the Mexica people in Lake Texcoco.
The Templo Mayor was the principal ceremonial building of Tenochtitlan. Its twin stairways rose towards two shrines: one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, associated with the sun and warfare, and the other to Tlaloc, associated with rain, water and agricultural fertility. These were not separate concerns in Mexica life. Political power, military success, the agricultural cycle and religious obligation formed an interconnected understanding of the world.
The temple was enlarged repeatedly between the fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Instead of removing an older sanctuary entirely, successive rulers built larger structures around and above it. Archaeologists have therefore uncovered several construction stages nested within one another. The surviving platforms, stairs and walls are not the ruins of a single moment, but the accumulated record of generations who reshaped their most sacred urban space.
After the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the ceremonial precinct was dismantled and new colonial buildings rose over much of the former city. Stones from Indigenous structures were reused, while streets and churches established a different political and religious order. The proximity of the cathedral to the excavated temple makes this historical rupture visible, although the relationship between the two places is more complex than a simple story of replacement.
The modern rediscovery of the site accelerated in 1978, when electrical workers uncovered the large circular stone depicting Coyolxauhqui, the dismembered moon-associated goddess of Mexica mythology. The discovery led to extensive archaeological excavations and the creation of the Templo Mayor Museum, which opened in 1987. The Coyolxauhqui relief remains one of the most striking works associated with the site.
Inside the museum, sculptures, offerings, ceramics, shells, animal remains and ritual objects help reconstruct the ceremonial life of the precinct. Many offerings were carefully arranged and placed within the successive building phases. Materials brought from distant coastal and inland regions also testify to the reach of Mexica trade, tribute and political influence. These objects tell us about connections between places as well as religious belief.
The pairing of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc is especially revealing. It reminds us that the temple was not merely a monumental backdrop for ceremonies: it expressed a worldview in which rain, crops, the passage of the sun and the responsibilities of rulers were linked. The museum allows visitors to consider these beliefs through physical evidence while recognizing that archaeological interpretation continues to develop as new discoveries are made.
What interested me most as a photographer was the contrast between the exposed foundations and the dense modern city surrounding them. The ruins are not hidden in a remote landscape; they occupy the centre of a living metropolis. In these photographs, fragments of ancient masonry and museum objects become part of a broader story about memory, conquest, excavation and the persistence of history beneath our feet.