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TEMPLE OF DOOM!

Archeologi­sts find site where cult butchered victims and wore their skin

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NEWLY discovered ruins of an ancient Mexican Temple of Doom have revealed a bloodthirs­ty cult that brutally skinned human sacrifices to please the Flayed Lord, a twisted deity who demanded fresh beating hearts!

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropolo­gy and History says archeologi­sts made the shocking discovery during a dig in the country’s central Puebla state, calling the Popoloca Indian site the only known temple dedicated to the skinwalker Xipe Totec to survive to the present day.

Two rock-ringed altars and enormous skull-like stone carvings — which guarded grottos stuffed with the discarded flesh of the dead — as well as a statue depicting the once-revered fertility god Xipe Totec, with an extra hand dangling off one arm to suggest he was wearing a sleeve of human skin, were also unearthed.

Academics say during the annual spring festival known as Tl ac axipehuali­zt li, meaning “flaying of men,” selected sacrifices were given mock weapons to battle brutal warriors — or were bound and shot with arrows.

The victims were then skinned by priests, who removed their flesh in one piece before donning the sick suit for 20 days as part of their ceremonial celebratio­n!

The Popolocas built the death temple between A.D. 1000 and 1260 and were later conquered by the Aztecs.

Often portrayed in artwork as carrying gore-covered weapons and wearing a suit of human skin, the Flayed Lord was one of the region’s most important gods during the pre-Hispanic era and was also revered by the Aztecs, who would slice open the chests of living men, women and children in his name to extract their still-beating hearts!

 ??  ?? Chilling evidence and artifacts detailing gruesome rituals have been found in Puebla, Mexico
Chilling evidence and artifacts detailing gruesome rituals have been found in Puebla, Mexico

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