Aztec Sacrifices

Aztecs are rather famous among historians for the different kinds of sacrificial rituals they performed to appease their deities. Children were required to cry before being sacrificed so that their tears would wet the earth to appease the Aztec deity Tlaloc. If they didn't cry, priests would tear out their fingernails to trigger crying. To honor the sun god Huitzilopochtli, the most famous rituals involved the removal of a living person’s heart. Earth mother Teteoinnan’s offerings generally required skinned female victims. Archeologists have discovered a site of mass sacrifice at the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan. Depending on the sources, it is said that Aztecs sacrificed anywhere between 4000-80,000 people over four days, which would be 41-840 sacrifices per hour for the entire festival.