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Primary sourceSculpture

Rock Carving of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin at Chapultepec Hill

A weathered relief carved during Moctezuma II's own reign, showing him standing with a staff, part of a series of ruler portraits at Chapultepec.

A rare surviving portrait of Moctezuma II carved during his own reign, showing him as the latest in a line of rulers.

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Weathered grey-brown rock face on a hillside of boulders, showing faint carved relief figures. A standing figure is partly visible in the center, with eroded shapes around it. Green moss and dry leaves surround the rock.
Rock relief of Moctezuma II, Chapultepec Hill, Mexico City. Photo by Omar David Sandoval Sida, 2019.

About this source

What it is

This is a high-relief rock carving on Chapultepec Hill in Mexico City, showing Moctezuma II full-body and front-facing, holding a chicahuaztli staff, with a war symbol beside him and six surrounding glyphs. It was originally one of five portraits of Mexica rulers carved there, from Moctezuma I to his great-grandson Moctezuma II.

Why it matters

Carved during Moctezuma II's own lifetime, this portrait was made by his own people to record his rule among a line of rulers stretching back generations. After the conquest, the other four portraits were defaced or destroyed, leaving only this one still partly visible today.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the carving has survived in such poor condition?
  • What might the glyphs around the figure have meant to people at the time?
  • Why might the Spanish have wanted to destroy images like these after the conquest?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Montezuma II on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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A painted page from a colonial Mexican manuscript with a blue-green border column of glyphs on the left. Rows of hilltop place-sign glyphs with Nahuatl labels and small pictorial symbols such as a seated figure, a bird, a shield with arrows, and plants, arranged on pale paper with a footer of writing at the bottom.Document

Secondary source

Codex Mendoza, Folio 15v

Unknown author · 16th century

Black-and-white lithograph titled 'Prision de Motezuma' showing Spanish armored soldiers with helmets and halberds on the left facing a group of Aztec-style figures in feathered headdresses on the right, including a central man in a feathered crown and cloak. A large draped canopy and stone columns frame the scene; a shield lies in the lower right. Printed credits read 'J. Serra lit.', 'Lit. Vidal, Olmo 29' and 'Riera, Editor Barcelona'.Painting

Secondary source

Prisión del emperador Moctezuma

Rafael del Castillo de la Cuesta · 1880

Open bound manuscript on a green cloth, showing two pages of handwritten text in columns with small painted illustrations of fish, a shell, a crab, and shrimp. Page headed 'Libro undecimo'.Book

Secondary source

Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators · 1569

Painting showing Hernán Cortés seizing Moctezuma, a later imagined depiction of the event.Painting

Secondary source

Hernán Cortés takes Moctezuma prisoner

Louis Auguste Turgis · 1895

Woodcut title page of a 1522 Spanish printed letter. A seated, crowned figure holds a scepter in an arched room with checkered floor, flanked by a city scene and a landscape. Below is black-letter Spanish text beginning 'Carta de relación enviada a su S. majestad del emperador nuestro señor por el capitán general de la nueva España, llamado Fernando Cortés', with a handwritten signature at the bottom.Letter

Primary source

Second Letter to Charles V

Hernán Cortés · 1520 (printed 1522)

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