A tower of human skulls unearthed in Mexico City.
Photo: Reuters
At the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, human sacrifices were a routine spectacle.
Parts of the body were sometimes cannibalized.
Diaz recounted that, after landing on the coast, they came across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca.
They cut off the arms, thighs and head, eating the arms and thighs at ceremonial banquets.
Aztec ritual human sacrifice portrayed in the 16th century Codex Magliabechiano.
Flanking this wall of skulls were two round towers also made of skulls.
But archaeological evidence suggests that human sacrifice was indeed a regular aspect of Aztec religious practices.
Depiction of a tzompantli in the 1587 Aztec manuscript, the Codex Tovar.
The towers were nearly 5 meters in diameter and at least 1.7 meters tall.
Graphics by C. Bickel and A. Cuadra for Science Mag
Human sacrifice occupied a particularly important place in Mesoamerica.
Nevertheless, scores were killed, and it was this obsession with death that eventually sealed the Aztecs fate.
Aztec human sacrifice as depicted in Codex Tudela.
