The Mexica (Aztecs) of central Mexico followed the same principles, but in addition to limestone they had access to tezontle, a porous volcanic rock with a reddish tinge - 'it is black, chili-red, rough...' - which they shaped into blocks and also broke up and crushed to form mortar - tezontlalli.

What materials did the Aztecs use?

The materials that they often used were obsidian, copper, andesite, flint, wood, sidian and chert. Among the local building materials, Aztecs used wood and local soil in addition to a special kind of sun-dried brick called the adobe. These were the most commonly used materials for the construction of Aztec buildings.

Did the Aztecs have cement?

Both Mayans and Aztecs then developed a technique that used thinner, mortared block walls filled with cast-in-place concrete, using a coarse limestone aggregate (basically, big gravel). ... Despite the concrete, these colonial buildings are much more vulnerable to earthquake damage.