A scream pierces the air as another victim, of thousands more, becomes lifeless in a temple of the praised Aztecan sun god. Blood stream down the temple stairs as the victim’s pulsing heart is elevated toward the sky. For the Aztecs, this is no different than the day before or the day to come. The Aztec culture was very complicated, rigid, and extremely religious. There are many opinions, some very biased, about their history, containing a large variety of stories, legends, and facts. What history should say, is that the Aztecan Empire was one of the most civilizations through the 13th to 15th century with creative agricultural methods, a skilled military with notable conquests, strong religious beliefs of family and rituals, with complex scientific achievements and a unique use of technology.
The advances made by the Aztecs are considered to be quite remarkable for an empire of that time period. They invented two divisions of time counting, used for different purposes. One of which, dubbed “tonalpohualli” or “counting of the days” was a 260-day cycle used for divination. The second, “xiuhpohualli” or “counting of the years” was a 365-day solar count used for regulating annual festivals. Together, the two larger calendar stone, rotating gears would engage, when the both were aligned at the beginning of the days, every 52 years, this would signify a Mesoamerican century. The Calendar Stone had many detailed and intricate symbols, designs, and pictures containing more information of the Aztec’s beliefs. It was measured to be more than 10 feet in diameter. (Doc B) Residing in Mexico, where the climate is hot and often dry, you would think growing a surplus of crops would be nearly impossible. So those clever little Aztecs invent these cool chinampas. Chinampas were floating reed islands anchored to the bottom of a lake that supported the growth of all their agriculture. They were 17 feet long and one hundred to three hundred thirty feet