Hearts for the Sun God

At the heart of an empire, human hearts were cut out because the sun was believed

to depend on it. This was the Aztec Empire, in central Mexico. It rose in the 14th

and 15th centuries, with its capital at Tenochtitlan. Aztec religion taught that the universe

was fragile. The sun god Huitzilopochtli needed nourishment to keep moving across the sky.

That nourishment was human blood and hearts. Sacrifices were performed atop temple

pyramids. Captives, often taken in ritualized wars called Flower Wars,

were used. Priests cut open the chest with obsidian blades. The heart was offered

to the gods. Spanish chroniclers like Bernal Díaz del Castillo described these ceremonies