Picture this: rows upon rows of human skulls stacked neatly on wooden racks, bleached by the sun, staring out into the sacred courtyards of ancient Tenochtitlan. This isn’t a scene from a horror movie — it’s history. Meet the Tzompantli, one of the most chilling and misunderstood relics of Aztec civilization.

On a quiet February morning in 1943, a Mexican farmer named Dionisio Pulido was tending to his cornfield in the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. The sun was rising, the soil smelled of earth and ash, and the world seemed as ordinary as ever. Until, quite literally, it cracked open beneath his feet.