Aztec women painted their faces a beautiful yellow
A Mexican codex in Oxford was thought to be Egyptian!
Who spoke first - host or guest?
Read our report on the 3rd London Nahuatl Study Day
We compare Maya and Aztec creation myths
Chanting in Mesoamerica has ancient roots
No-one surpassed the Mixtecs in the applied arts
How to tell an artefact from an artiFAKE
Aztec life force - teotl - or sacred energy
Cocoa beans make perfect small change!
The famous obsidian Aztec jar in the form of a spider monkey
The Aztecs cleaned their teeth with charcoal...
The oldest team sport in the world...
Teaching resource - a Maya farmer’s house
How spies brought chocolate secrets to England...
Cacao use among the Pre-Hispanic Maya
Vote for your favourite Aztec day sign!
Grasshoppers - archetypal Aztec mutants...
What life is like stuck up a gum tree
Lighting a fire on the top of a mountain gave out an ancient signal
General Aztecs Maya Tocuaro Kids Contact 4 Jun 2020/9 Wind
Text Size:

Two Mexica (Aztec) feather shields, Azteken exhibition, Stuttgart

Click to see the latest Artefact in the Spotlight!

link of the month button
Listen to a podcast for kids on the Aztecs, with us in it!
Dr. Ximena Chávez Balderas

Why did the Aztecs believe they had to go on a 4-year journey to the underworld when they died? asked Blackheath Prep School. Read what Dr. Ximena Chávez Balderas had to say.

Search the Site (type in white box):
¡Bienvenidos!
Sacrifice in the pre-Hispanic Mixtec codices NEW Click the flag for a Spanish translation
‘Azteken’ exhibition, Stuttgart
La Llorona (1)
La Llorona (2)
History of British and Mexican querns
Stages of childhood in Mesoamerica
The ocarina in Mesoamerica
The Concept of the Wheel in Ancient Mesoamerica Click the flag for a Spanish translation
The Mexica approach to alcohol
Mexica (Aztec) Human Sacrifice: New Perspectives Click the flag for a Spanish translation
IN THE NEWS: avocados
Households and Daily Life in Mesoamerica
The Voladores ceremony
Birth and death as metaphors (1)
Birth and death as metaphors (2)
Chanting in Mesoamerica Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Witchcraft and Sorcery in Ancient Mexico
Colour and Culture Among the Aztecs (1)
Colour and Culture Among the Aztecs (2)
The Aztecs, patolli and gambling
Feathers from which birds went to make Aztec & Maya headdresses?
Aztec running
The art of Aztec mourning
What lies underneath Aztec sculpture?
Caves as Sacred Space in Ancient Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican Copper
Lightning in Mesoamerica
Dr. H.B. Nicholson - ‘Grandfather’ of Aztecs Studies
Games and Other Amusements of the Ancient Mesoamericans
Especial Birds in the Americas
Aztec Masks
Nahua Moral Philosophy
The Aztecs and Lake Navigation Click the flag for a Spanish translation
The Ancient Secret of Pre-Hispanic Jewellery Click the flag for a Spanish translation
‘What was the Aztecs’ most prized possession?’
IN THE NEWS: femicide in Mexico (1)
IN THE NEWS: femicide in Mexico (2)
IN THE NEWS: (ritual) decapitation
Water in the Valley of Mexico
A modern Nahua pilgrimage
The Deep Roots of Aztec Sculpture
Mexica Weaponry Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Aztec Philosophy
Aztec Women
Vienna’s Mesoamerican Featherworks
Did Aztec rulers possess divine powers?
The skilled use of conch shell in mosaics
Mexico’s Faked Prehistory
Found! The pulque gods’ ‘golden section’...
How Aztec poetry works
How did Mesoamericans envision the cosmos?
Portrait of a Collection: National Museum of Mexico, 1865
Clean Aztecs, Dirty Spaniards
Templo Mayor animation
The Aztecs and the atlatl
Aztec Manners
The Aztecs have been called many things... Click the flag for a Spanish translation
“There is no such thing as ‘Human Sacrifice’” Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Hare vs Rabbit in mythology Click the flag for a Spanish translation
The Skywatchers of Cahokia
How ‘Eagle Man’ has changed Britain’s museums
Aztec Poetry (1): Intro Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Aztec Poetry (2): Three Poems
Reconstructing Aztec Super Glues
Aztec Concepts of the Human Body (1)
Aztec Concepts of the Human Body (2)
Aztecs and the power of lament
Mexico’s long-distance running tradition
IN THE NEWS (again): vicious dogs
Cannibalism and corpse medicine (1)
Cannibalism and corpse medicine (2)
IN THE NEWS: latest excavations...
IN THE NEWS: how the cactus stone was unearthed
Quotes on the Aztecs
More quotes on the Aztecs
Search and ye shall find...
Day of the Dead (1)
Day of the Dead (2)
Crystal skulls
Turquoise Mosaics book launched
IN THE NEWS: earliest writing
IN THE NEWS: ancient dogs
‘The Heart’ exhibition
IN THE NEWS: pole climbing
A very modern assault on the Aztecs...
Mexican Bank Notes
Netzahualcóyotl’s hidden poem
IN THE NEWS: ancient footprints
IN THE NEWS: ‘Tooth place’
The British Library have selected our site
Colossal serpent
Mexican Masks
Family MileSTONES
Henry Moore
Frida Kahlo’s The Wounded Table
Frida Kahlo
Masters of mosaic
Mexican Stamps
Tezcatlipoca - a new clue is revealed... Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Tezcatlipoca Symposium Click the flag for a Spanish translation
Templo Mayor Education Service
BBC Aztecs Series
Oldest school book on the Aztecs?
Bristol and the New World
Ballgames and logos
IN THE NEWS: ‘The Last Aztec’
‘Snow joke...

From the Archives:
Mexicolore in the TES
Aztec Music Lecture
‘What the Aztecs did...’
IN THE NEWS: Enciclomedia
‘Háblame’ - ‘Speak to me’
Drawing on Aztec art
‘Whale I never...’
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

3 Mexican football fans

Aztecs, ballgames and logos...

Mexico have come pretty close (quarter finals) to winning the World Cup, and were the first country to host the FIFA series twice - in 1970 and again in 1986, each time in the famous ‘Estadio Azteca’ or Aztec Stadium in Mexico City. (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Official FIFA World Cup emblem, Mexico 1986
Official FIFA World Cup emblem, Mexico 1986

The Aztec Stadium, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (who also designed Mexico City’s celebrated National Anthropology Museum), was built in 1966, and is the second largest (capacity 114,000) football stadium in the world. It was in the stadium during the 1986 World Cup that the world famous ‘Mexican Wave’ first broke onto the international scene.

Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium
Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium (Click on image to enlarge)

For decades the Mexican team have sported a strip with a striking design based on the ultimate Aztec icon - the Sunstone or Calendar Stone. The ‘ghosted’ version in grey became very popular around the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Mexico’s 1998 World Cup shirt design based on the Calendar Stone
Mexico’s 1998 World Cup shirt design based on the Calendar Stone (Click on image to enlarge)
Mexicans learn to love football from before they’re born!
Mexicans learn to love football from before they’re born! (Click on image to enlarge)
More on the Aztec Calendar Stone
More on the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame
Feedback button

Here's what others have said:

Mexicolore replies: Thanks for asking, George. We’re afraid we don’t know, at present. We’ll try and find out for you...
Mexicolore replies: There is a link on this page, Alma, to a page on our site about the pre-Hispanic ballgame, ullamaliztli! Click on ‘More on the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame’...