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Proof of the
Aztecs’ engineering skills lay in the canals, aqueducts,
causeways and movable drawbridges. All the main canals and
roadways led to the central plaza where the government
buildings were located. The main square also housed most of
the temples. Their temples had long stairways and stone
carvings. The Aztecs had many gods too. In fact, for the
Aztecs, religion was more important than civil laws. They
believed in human sacrifice and displayed severed heads in the
main plaza as evidence of their sacrifice.
The Aztecs
worshipped their gods in the form of animals. Their most
important god was the serpent god who was their god of
learning and priesthood. He was known as Quetzalcoatl. Their
favorites were, however, the Hummingbird Wizard, the Sun God
and the god of war, whom they called Huitzilopochtli. Their
faith in religion was so intense that they trained young girls
and boys for official religious duties in special schools.
Other subjects
taught in their schools were arts and crafts, Aztec
traditions, religious observances and history. So proud were
they of their roots. They communicated using pictures and
symbols “written” on books made of leaves. It is said that
some of these leaf scrolls are in existence even today.
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Great Temple Stairs, Mexico City |
Dark and sturdy in
physical appearance, the Aztecs also had dark hair and looked quite
similar to the Indians that we see in Mexico now. The race began to
fade out when the Spanish explorer Cortes who discovered the Aztec
empire in the sixteenth century conquered the people after first
imprisoning their king, which triggered off a dearly fought war.
With this the Aztec civilization almost collapsed. For Cortes had
all their temples and government buildings razed and had his offices
built there.
Historians say that the
descendants of the Aztec race are still living in small villages
near Mexico City and they speak their original language, known as
Nahuatl. (Some words now in use in English, such as tomato, chili
and chocolate, are said to have originated from this language.) The
new generation, however, is said to be following the customs and
traditions of the Spaniards, who settled in their land centuries ago.
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