Skip to content

The rings of the Sun Stone

The six concentric rings of the monolith, one by one.

La Piedra del Sol en rojo y amarillo sobre fondo oscuro: el rostro de Tonatiuh, las cuatro eras, los veinte signos, el disco solar y las dos Xiuhcóatl.
Las fuentes no coinciden en cómo estaba teñida la Piedra del Sol. Sólo hay registro de pigmentos rojo y amarillo. El reparto de esos dos colores entre los anillos es una decisión de esta reproducción, no una reconstrucción respaldada. El monolito hoy está desnudo.

How to cite this page

Alma Mexica, «The rings of the Sun Stone», Alma Mexica. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/anillo/

Questions that reach this page

What is the Aztec calendar stone?

A Mexica monolith almost four metres across, also called the Sun Stone, with six concentric rings: the central face, the four previous world ages, the twenty day-signs, the bands of jade and solar rays, the band of stars, and the two fire serpents framing it. It is not a calendar you could consult: it is a statement about the cosmos, which is why calling it «the Aztec calendar» misleads.

Is the Aztec sun stone a real calendar?

Not in the sense of something you could read a date from. It carries the twenty day-signs on one of its rings, but it does not let you count time or find a date. The calendar is the two counts — the tonalpohualli and the xiuhpohualli — which exist with or without the stone.