Valley of Mexico

Ancient Mexican artifacts recovered from abroad are among the archaeological treasures on display at an exhibition showcasing the country's cultural heritage 200 years after it won independence from Spain.

Titled "The Greatness of Mexico," the exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology and another site showcases 1,500 rare pieces, including Mayan sculptures and Aztec codices.

Archaeologists scanning a Mexican pyramid for damage following September's devastating earthquake have uncovered traces of an ancient temple.

The temple is nestled inside the Teopanzolco pyramid in Morelos state, 70km (43 miles) south of Mexico City.

It is thought to date back to 1150 and to belong to the Tlahuica culture, one of the Aztec peoples living in central Mexico.

Archaeologists have found around 650 skulls, mostly of women and children, and caked in lime and thousands of fragments in the cylindrical edifice, near the site of the Templo Mayor - one of the main temples in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (currently known as Mexico City). As expected, the development has sparked few questions over the culture of sacrifice of the Aztec civilisation.

The date was 1497 and the emperor, Ahuitzotl, stood in the Sacred Precinct of the great temple Templo Mayor, built in the center of the Mayan capital, Tenochtitlan.

A sacrificial wolf elaborately adorned with some of the finest Aztec gold ever found and buried more than five centuries ago has come to light in the heart of downtown Mexico City, once home to the Aztec empire's holiest shrines.

A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.

A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec empire, after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.