Tenayuca

Tenayuca is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the Valley of Mexico [1]. In the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, Tenayuca was a settlement on the former shoreline of the western arm of Lake Texcoco [1]. It was located approximately 10 kilometres to the northwest of Tenochtitlan [1]. Aztec temple architecture primarily developed at Tenayuca, which has the earliest example yet found of the typical Aztec double pyramid, which consists of joined pyramidal bases supporting two temples [1]. The temple of Tenayuca is better preserved than the similar temple of Tlatelolco and its wall of serpents remains mostly intact on three sides of the base of the pyramid [1]. The site consists of a massive truncated temple platform with a double stairway rising on the western side to where the twin temples of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli once stood [1]. Some of the temple steps are carved with year-glyphs such as knives, circles and shields [1]. In the case of Tenayuca, the size of the building increased through six phases of construction but the basic form remained unchanged [1].