Mexico City looks out over the great Tenochtitlán and the human sacrifices of Huey Tzompantli

• History López Obrador rewrites the history of Tenochtitlán

• Archeology The evidence confirming the Aztec Holocaust

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City was built using the same materials that supported the great Aztec temples. The first stone was laid by Hernán Cortés around 1524, beginning an irreversible process that was to bury Tenochtitlán to build the foundations of the capital of New Spain on its ruins. Almost 500 years later, the cobbled streets of the historic center have become a faithful reflection of the mestizo society that is today's Mexico, a place where churches, colonial buildings, food stalls, large markets and where some vestiges of the ancient Aztec capital that the

has been in charge of rescuing.

The first great discovery occurred on February 21, 1978, when a group of archaeologists found the remains of the Templo Mayor, the main ceremonial center of the Mexica. In this imposing building, 45 meters high on a quadrangular base 400 meters on each side, the most important events of the political, economic and religious life of the Empire took place. Currently, this site is one of the best preserved and has its own museum, but it is not the only one. In total,

, most of which were destroyed or were buried by the passage of time, but many others are reluctant to disappear into oblivion.

«The sacred site of Tenochtitlán was a quadrangular space of 500 meters per side. The city was much larger, this was only the center, ”explains Raúl Barrera, PAU supervisor and director of the Archaeological Windows Program. This veteran archaeologist has led a team in charge of rescuing

under the subsoil of the sacred site

since 2007

. To date they have managed to enable a total of 42 windows so that, from the same street, passersby can look out at the ancient Aztec capital. "The idea is that what we rescue does not remain only in museums, but that it coexists with the current city, that the past can coexist with the present", explains Barrera.

The historic center of Mexico City is considered Cultural Heritage of Humanity and any underground movement, such as plumbing repairs, public works or building renovations, must be notified to the National Institute of History and Archeology.

It is at that moment when Barrera and his team go into action, any excuse is good to try to unearth treasures of old Tenochtitlán.

The expansion works of the Cultural Center of Spain, located behind the Metropolitan Cathedral, made it possible to find in 2006

a school where the children of the Mexican nobles and the future leaders of the great empire studied.

Oil from the second half of the seventeenth century and an unknown author that represents the fall of Tenochtitlán.

Under the foundations of the Monte de Piedad National building, archaeologists have found a place of special symbolic value: the Axayácatl Palace, where the Spanish were accommodated upon their arrival in Tenochtitlán. In that same place, Moctezuma, the great Mexican leader, was taken prisoner. Years later, Hernán Cortés had his own house built there, which, in the end, would become the headquarters of the first Cabildo of New Spain. Among other discoveries, the PAU archaeologists have also brought to light

In total, 16 buildings in the historic center have been intervened, although few finds have aroused as much interest as

a monumental offering dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. According to the latest studies, this fearsome structure consisted of a 36-meter-long platform, on which poles with crossbars were erected where

of the sacrificed

. The posts were in turn flanked by two circular columns, four meters high, made up of hundreds of skulls. More than 600 have been identified to date, but many more are suspected. Archaeologists continue to work in this space that is not open to the public, but whose doors Barrera opens to this newspaper.

According to the archaeologist, the vast majority of the skulls belong

"probably captured enemies or people who were preparing all their lives for it." Several minors have also been found, a practice that speaks about the brutality of these rituals that are not exclusive to the Mexica. "In Mesoamerica it was a very common practice, different societies resorted to sacrifices for different reasons, in the case of the Mexica it was a religious matter, they believed that the gods could die and they had to be fed so that the cycle of life continued", Barrera points out.

The analysis of the skulls in the laboratory has made it possible to better understand the reality of the sacrifices.

"They were very healthy people, they had very few diseases," explains the archaeologist, who also regrets that "most likely" this column of skulls will not be able to be visited in the same conditions as it is shown to us "due to the risks it implies for conservation ».

So far, one of the two columns of the enclosure has been found, the other is suspected to be under the garden of the Cathedral.

One of the conquerors who accompanied Hernán Cortés, Andrés de Tapia, estimated the number of skulls at

The PAU's task is immense, but Barrera is undaunted and enthusiastic about "finishing this puzzle."

At its peak, Tenochtitlán was the largest city in the world, with an estimated population of 200,000 people.

It was surrounded by volcanoes and built in the middle of a large lake, which earned it the nickname of the Venice of the New World.

and estimated that its central square was "twice as large as that of Salamanca."

The conquerors drained the lake and completely transformed a city that, 500 years later, has become an asphalt jungle where 22 million people live who, thanks to the work of archaeologists, can peek into its pre-Hispanic past.

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