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Type
Sacred SiteMythology
Mesoamerican Pantheon
Realm
Mythological / Non-physical
Coatepec is the mountain where Coatlicue conceives Huitzilopochtli from a ball of down, and where he bursts forth armed to dismember Coyolxauhqui and scatter the Centzon Huitznahua. Sahagun's Florentine Codex Book 3 is the main prose witness. The Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan restaged that mountain: Coyolxauhqui at the foot, the sun-war god at the summit. There is no second literary Coatepec required. The myth is a temple plan.
“There at Coatepec, Serpent Mountain, Huitzilopochtli was born. He wounded Coyolxauhqui, cut off her head, and the body went rolling down.”

The Maya underworld, 'Place of Fear,' ruled by the death lords One Death and Seven Death. Souls must pass through houses of darkness, knives, cold, jaguars, fire, and bats. The Hero Twins descended here to defeat death itself.

The Aztec paradise where the gods created humanity from the bones retrieved from Mictlan. A place of flowering trees and eternal spring, Tamoanchan represents the original state of creation before the current world age.

The legendary Toltec capital associated with Quetzalcoatl as priest-king. A place of artistic and cultural perfection where corn grew in brilliant colors and cotton grew already dyed. Quetzalcoatl was tricked into disgrace here by Tezcatlipoca.

The mythical homeland of the Aztec people, 'Place of Whiteness' or 'Place of Herons.' From this island city, the Mexica began their long migration south, guided by Huitzilopochtli, until they found the eagle on the cactus that marked Tenochtitlan.

The great Maya-Toltec city dominated by El Castillo, the pyramid of Kukulkan. During the equinoxes, shadows create the illusion of a serpent descending the stairs. The cenote here received sacrificial offerings to Chaac.

The 'Place Where Gods Are Made,' site of the Fifth Sun's creation. Here the gods gathered in darkness, and Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself in fire to become the sun. The Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon mark this sacred ground.