Great Civilisations - The Aztecs [antikvár]

ir t I k- ynWl.-The flint blade of the sacrificial knife flashed in the sunshine as the Aztec priest raised it high in the air. Directly below, a man lay face upwards across a stone altar, held down by his arms and legs by four more priests. Death was only moments away now. The knife plunged down, piercing deep into the man's chest. Seconds later, the heart had been torn out and with a cry of triumph, the priest who had performed the sacrifice was holding it up towards the Sun.The five priests and their victim were alone on top of a great stepped pyramid 90 ft (27.5 m) high. All the same, the sacrifice had been witnessed by a great crowd of people. They milled about far below in the tecpan (temple enclosure) of Tenochtitlan, the capital city the Aztecs had built on Lake Texcoco, in central Mexico.