Huey Teocalli (Civ6)/Civilopedia

In the Aztec Empire, a teocalli was a terraced pyramid, surmounted by a temple on top, site of all the important religious rituals in the town. The greatest was located in the heart of Tenochtitlan, the Huey Teocalli (or, according to the Spanish, the Templo Mayor) dedicated to a pair of gods: Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Tlaloc, the god of agriculture (an indication of what was important in Aztec culture). Each god had a separate temple, reached by separate staircases. Mesoamerican pyramids tended to be rebuilt, using the prior structure as the base for the new, expanded version. Thus, Huey Teocalli was rebuilt six times after the first was completed around 1325 AD. The seventh, and last, was the one sacked and destroyed by Cortes and his conquistadors. Likely they took a dim view of the place, as it was given over to curious celebrations… such as the Panquetzaliztli festival celebrating Huitzilopochtli, when an effigy of the god made from amaranth seeds, bones, honey, and human blood was venerated, then given over to the populace to be eaten.