I’m pretty sure you´ve seen a photo of this monolith before, either in a mexican soccer jersey from the 1998 FIFA World Cup, a golden coin on Pirates of the Caribbean (which was inspired by the one in the photo) or maybe when the apocalypse was taking place back in 2012 with the “Mayan apocalypse prophecy”, phew, I’m glad we all survived that 
…well this object is not mayan and not related to that prophecy, actually it’s aztec, it is the Aztec Sun Stone.
The Aztec Sun Stone is one of the most iconic pieces from Mexican history, it was discovered on December 17, 1790 when some construction workers were digging in the main square of Mexico City they found this monolith at just 40 cm underground , during a lot of years it was located on the side of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, until it was moved to an actual museum in 1855, currently it is located inside the National Anthropology Museum, it has a 3.6 meters diameter and weighs 24,000 kg. It was originally painted with red and yellow colors.
Meaning
Ok so, as you can see the Sun Stone has a lot of elements, carved but there are some that are easy to identify if we divide it, let’s see the next image:
1.-Tonatiuh, the God of sun, his tongue is represented by a knife used for human sacrifices.
2.-Ollin, it means “movement’’ and has four squares, each one represents one of the four previous eras, The past eras must be read in anticlockwise direction:
- Four Jaguar
- Four Wind
- Four Rain
- Four Water
Together, they represent the fifth era, our era, the fifth sun prophesy that our era will end with an earthquake, that’s why it’s called movement.
3.- Each of the 20 symbols represents a day, aztec months had 20 days.
4.-Sun rays representing the cardinal points
5.- The last ring has 2 snakes in a circular shape, it is said that are 2 of the most important deities, Tonatiuh (God of Sun) and Quetzalcoátl (God of Venus).
Ready for one cool fact about Mexican coins?
Mexican peso is the official currency in Mexico, in the image above there are 4 coins that we use, $1, $2, $5 and $10 Mexican pesos, there are also cents but it’s really rare to use them (you know, inflation). Now, if you look at them you might notice something you have just seen, that’s right, these coins have parts of the Aztec Sun Stone distributed in rings, if hypothetically we could place them in the correct order, we could see the complete design of the Sun Stone, kinda like this:
I have to admit that the Aztec Sun Stone looks like an Oreo cookie as** @SoniaK **told me, maybe it’s time for some Oreos with that design, if there are Oreos with really weird flavours and combinations, why not? 
Thanks for reading, maybe next time you visit Mexico you want to keep some coins as a souvenir.
Sono d’accordo con Soniak, quando ho visto la foto ho pensato ai biscotti Oreo anche io! 
I love Mexico and its folk together with rich history. I’ve been to your country twice and I wouldn’t mind to go there again! 
