Nima'a Tz'aq Tojil

Mayanist anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: n821) explains the significance of the sacred temple to Tojil in an extensively-researched footnote, which we cite in full below. He writes:

"These three temples, dedicated to the patron deities of the Quichés, were the tallest buildings at the site and were arranged on three sides of the central plaza at Cumarcah, although the structure identified as the Hacavitz temple faces away from the plaza (Fernández-Valbuena 1996, 78-80; Cook 2000, 204). The tallest of these was the Temple of Tohil (Carmack 1981, 225-226). Unfortunately, all the stone that once faced the temple has been looted, leaving only its rubble core. It is still possible, however, to determine that the main entrance to the sanctuary faced east, toward the rising sun. According to Ximénez, who visited the site when it was in much better condition, the temple of Tohil had stairways on all four sides, oriented to the cardinal directions (Ximénez 1929-31, I.xxvii.74-75). This is confirmed by a drawing of the temple made by Rivera y Maestra in 1834 which clearly shows stairways on each of its visible sides. The Temple of Tohil was thus similar to other radial stairway temples constructed by the Maya since at least the Late Preclassic Period (Ca. 200 BC-AD 250). Examples include Structure E-VII-sub at Uaxactun, the Lost World Pyramid at Tikal, Structure 4 at Copan, Structure A-3 at Seibal, El Castillo at Chichen Itza, the Temple of the Seven Dolls at Dzibilchaltun, and the principal temple at Chutixtiox (not far from Cumarcah near Sacapulas). Schele and Mathews associate such radial temples with the first mountain to emerge from the primordial sea at the time of creation (Schele and Mathews 1998, 40-42, 179-182, 368 n. 31). Karl Taube further identifies radial stairway structures as loci for New Fire-making rituals connected with the primordial hearth of creation (Taube 1998, 441-442). Tohil was primarily a fire god, who provided “new fire” for his people by means of a twist-drill (see p. 214; line 5499). John Lloyd Stephens described the appearance of the Temple of Tohil, which he called the Sacrificatorio (Spanish: Place of Sacrifice) in the late 1830s:

'It is a quadrangular stone structure, sixty-six feet on each side at the base, and rising in a pyramidal form to the height, in its present condition, of thirty-three feet. On three sides there is a range of steps in the middle, each step seventeen inches high, and but eight inches on the upper surface, which makes the range so steep that in descending some caution is necessary. At the corners are four buttresses of cut stone, diminishing in size from the line of the square, and apparently intended to support the structure. On the side facing the west there are no steps, but the surface is smooth and covered with stucco, gray from long exposure. By breaking a little at the corners we saw that there were different layers of stucco, doubtless put on at different times, and all had been ornamented with painted figures. In one place we made out part of the body of a leopard, well drawn and coloured. The top of the Sacrificatorio is broken and ruined, but there is no doubt that it once supported an altar for those sacrifices of human victims which struck even the Spaniards with horror. It was barely large enough for the altar and officiating priests, and the idol to whom the sacrifice was offered (Stephens 1969, II, 183-184).'

Stephens’ mention of a jaguar (he incorrectly called it a leopard) mural on the temple of Tohil is significant. Tohil was the principal deity of Balam Quitze whose nawal, or animal counterpart, was the jaguar (see p. 245; lines 6766-6779)."