Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006Aztec Discovery
The Zocalo in Mexico City is a huge, paved square at the center of the nation's traffic-clogged, smoggy capital, surrounded by government palaces and other official buildings...and, just a few yards away, improbably the partly excavated remains of a structure that stood when the Conquistadors arrived some five centuries ago. The Templo Mayor was the site of bloody sacrifice by the Aztecs who once ruled here...and now, say archaeologists, the most important Aztec discovery in decades. It's an altar carved with images of Aztec deities and a huge stone slab that may mark the entrance to an underground chamber that contains...well, that's the interesting part. Nobody knows--but Mexican archaeologists will be given all the time they need to find out.
—M.L.
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