The Earth Goddess Coatlicue
in front of the main plaza at Tenochtitlan. This colossal statue of the goddess was buried by the Spaniards in colonial times due to its pagan importance. When it was rediscovered in the 19th century, the Mexican government placed it in the Plaza mayor, but quickly removed it to the cultural museum when local indians began to pay homage to the statue and leave offerings.

Coatlicue was the old goddess of the earth, she was the mother of the gods as well as the grandmother of the race of man. This statue depicts her in her most grusome form, as the flesh-eating goddess of sacrifice. Two serpent heads spring from her severed neck to form the single face of the great earth monster. A necklace of human hearts and hands decorate her body, a form comprised entirely of serpents. The earth goddess is represented as the cannibalistic eater of flesh. A representation of the earth's decomposition ofall that dies, and returns back to nature. All life and hence matter is eventually consumed by the earth.