Why this word is great
TEOCALLI — [Noun] A pyramidal temple structure of the Aztec and other Mesoamerican civilizations, crowned with a shrine at its apex. From Spanish teocalli, from Nahuatl teōcalli ("god-house"), composed of teōtl ("god") + calli ("house"). Unlike a "ziggurat" (with its terraced Mesopotamian austerity) or a "kiva" (a sunken Puebloan space of quiet ritual), the teocalli is a stairway to the sky, a brutal geometry ascending toward sacrifice and sun. It is the knife-edge of dawn glinting off obsidian blades, the sticky-sweet reek of copal smoke curling over stone, the terrible beauty of a civilization that built its altars high enough to touch the gods—only to find them hungry.