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n– 1790
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nImaginenyou are in La Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City) on this date in 1790…nYou are doing repairs and have to dig below the Zocalo (main square)n– and you discover a huge slab of stone with ancient symbols carvednall around a central face!
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nCannyou imagine how exciting it would be to make such a discovery?
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nThencircular stone slab is 12 feet (about four meters) in diameter and 3nfeet (about one meter) thick—and it weighs more than 24 tons! It isna massive representation of the Aztec calendar; known as the SunnStone, it is one of Mexico’s national treasures.
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| The calendar used to be painted in bright colors. |
nWhennthe Spanish conquered the Aztecs in the early 1500s, they tore downnthe grand temple dedicated to the sun god Tonatuihnand erected a large cathedral dedicated to the Christian god,ninstead. It seems that the Spanish just buried the Sun Stone as theynrebuilt their new capital city on top of Tenochtitlan, the capital ofnthe Aztec Empire.
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| Tenochtitlan was built on a natural and artificial islands on a lake! |
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Learnnabout the Aztecs…
Learnnabout the Aztecs…n
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nHeren is an introductory video.
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nCheckn out Aztec History -dot-com.
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nThis video is more professional than the one listed above, and reallyn interesting. However, it is a bit more one-sided—showing a lot ofn positive things about the Aztecs, and barely mentioning then negatives.
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nFornmore about the Aztecs, checknout this earlier post.
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nAlsonon this date…
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nSecond night of Las Posadas
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nAnniversary of first successful airplane flight
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nMathematician and physicist Emilie du Chatelet’s birthday
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