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Mythos Atlas

Aztec PantheonSacred Site

Teotihuacan

Illustration of Teotihuacan, a sacred site of the Aztec Pantheon
Illustrative imageIllustration of Teotihuacan. Generated with an AI image model; not a historical artifact. About our images

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.

About Teotihuacan

Where gods are made

The Mexica called the ruined metropolis Teotihuacan, "place where gods are made," and set the Fifth Sun's creation there: gods meet in darkness, Nanahuatzin and Tecuciztecatl leap into a fire, and the sun and moon begin. Sahagun and the Leyenda de los Soles tell it. The city's own language is unread as narrative. Pyramids of Sun and Moon are later names. The myth is a Mexica reading of abandoned monuments, not a Teotihuacano text.

On the map

Teotihuacan among other places of the Aztec Pantheon.

Sources and further reading

Source notes

These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.

  • Leyenda de los Soles / Florentine Codex Book 7

    Catalog date: c. 16th c. CE

About this entry

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.

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