View of the main pyramid steps at Teopanzolco. Location: Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Culture: Tlahuica and Aztec.
Date of structure: c. 1150-1521 AD. Date of photograph: c. 1875. Photographer: Teobert Maler. Collection: The Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
This atmospheric photograph by Teobert
Maler captures the massive double staircase of the main pyramid at Teopanzolco long before the site was formally excavated. The architecture is a deliberate imitation of the Templo Mayor in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
It was designed to support twin temples at the summit: one dedicated to Tlaloc, the rain god, and the other to Huitzilopochtli, the war god.
For centuries, the pyramid lay hidden in plain sight, so covered by earth and vegetation that it was mistaken for a natural hill. Its rediscovery occurred during the chaos of the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s.
Revolutionary forces loyal to Emiliano Zapata needed a strategic high point to attack federal troops in the center of Cuernavaca. They hauled heavy artillery to the top of this hill, unknowingly turning an ancient ceremonial center into a gun emplacement. The relentless barrage of cannon fire created intense vibrations that literally shook the centuries of accumulated soil loose from the stonework, revealing the massive structure beneath.
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