This story appears in the November 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. On the edge of Mexico City's famed Zócalo plaza, next to the ruins of the Aztec sacred pyramid known as the Templo ...

Hygiene and ritual marked every moment of life for pregnant Aztec women. The tlamatlquiticitl—midwife—offered those in her charge a remarkable 16th-century birthing plan, combining practical ...

National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)The discovery yielded 119 skulls of men, women, and children and expanded the scope of Templo Mayor’s dig site. In 2017, researchers ...

In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel Leon­Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were ...