Adoratorio de Ehécatl, Aztec ceremonial shrine in Centro Histórico, Mexico City.

The Adoratorio de Ehécatl is a circular structure of five superimposed shrines, measuring 10.7 by 7.6 metres and 3.7 metres high, found between 1967 and 1970 during excavation for Pino Suárez metro station, where it is displayed. It stood east-west in a patio with stairways on three sides; the lower shrine is linked to Tláloc, the central to Ehécatl-Quetzalcoatl and the upper probably to Tezcatlipoca.

The circular shrine was part of a ceremonial centre of Tenochtitlan, in the area now bounded by Pino Suárez and José María Izazaga streets. Its five superimposed levels were built in three different periods, the lower dedicated to Tláloc, the central to Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl and probably the upper to Tezcatlipoca. Archaeologists Jordi Gussinyer and Raúl Arana directed the excavations between 1967 and 1970, when construction of Pino Suárez metro station exposed the structure.

The name refers to Ehécatl, the wind deity worshipped at this location in Aztec belief. Visitors can observe how the different sacred areas were arranged and understand how this space served religious ceremonies.

The shrine stands inside the Pino Suárez Metro station, on the line 1 and line 2 platforms, so it is reached through the station itself rather than from the street. The INAH does not list it as an archaeological zone, and the roughly 54 million people who pass each year are mostly commuters. Look for the circular base beside the walkways.

The sculpture found at the foot of the stairway depicts Ehécatl as an ozomatli, a monkey, wearing the wind god's buccal mask. Carved from andesitic stone, it kept some of its original paint: black body, red mask, ears and hands, blue-green wrists with rattlesnake bracelets. Two black serpents with red heads run along it, one coiling up its leg, the other forming its tail.