Detail of the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl

The Palace of Quetzalpapalotl is without doubt the finest palatial building at Teotihuacan. With its large, painted, tablero-style lintels and ornately carved pillars inlaid with obsidian and mica, there is no doubt that it was designed to stand out as an architectural masterpiece and exude wealth and power when it was completed. The Palace of Quetzalpapalotl is configured around a square courtyard, with four porticoed vestibules leading to rooms on all sides, apart from the eastern side which backs onto the pyramidal temple base that is located in the south-western corner of the Plaza of the Moon. The palace takes its name from the images found upon the pillars which, when discovered in 1962, were thought to be of Quetzalpapalotl – the "feathered-butterfly". Palace of Quetzalpapalotl at Teotihuacan.