The Aztecs didn’t depend time on an infinite scale, as we do, however in cyclical 52-year intervals, and at the completion of every cycle, life and the world would start anew. To provoke the begin of a brand new cycle the New Fire ceremony was held, the most necessary Aztec ritual. Every 52 years the inhabitants of Tenochtitlán discarded the photos of their gods and all their home utensils and extinguished any fires in their properties and temples. As the metropolis sat in full darkness, clergymen would depart the Templo Mayor and journey to Huixachtlan (Cerro de la Estrella, or Hill of the Star), and at the summit they might carry out a ceremony to mild a brand new fireplace. The ritual was surrounded with uncertainty and worry as a result of it was believed that if the new fireplace was not efficiently lit, the world would finish and the stars would flip into monsters that might devour humanity. During the 5 days previous to the ceremony, the folks let their fires exit and destroyed their family items, after which they waited, fasting and lamenting, pondering the risk of the collapse of the world. That second was superbly re-created in 3D by Kole.
“The really hard part was gathering all the information and then trying things out,” explains Thomas Kole. “How do you create a city when you don’t really know anything about it? How do you start gathering that information? That was really difficult and involved throwing out a lot of things when I found different sources with conflicting information. That’s part of being a pioneer, venturing into the unknown, into what no one has done before, but that’s also very difficult because it takes a lot of time. Also, I don’t speak Spanish and I’m not an academic, so I really approached this as an outsider,” Kole says.
“The year is 1518. Mexico-Tenochtitlán, once an unassuming settlement in the middle of Lake Texcoco, is now a bustling metropolis. It is the capital of an empire ruling over, and receiving tribute from, more than five million people. Tenochtitlán is home to 200,000 farmers, artisans, merchants, soldiers, priests, and aristocrats. At this time, it is one of the largest cities in the world. Today, we call this city Ciudad de Mexico—Mexico City,” reads the website, which opens with a stylized Tenochtitlán glyph, made by Mi Corazón Mexica.