This courtyard sits one level below the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, though both spaces are contemporary. That arrangement is no topographical accident—it creates a spatial hierarchy in which the Courtyard of the Jaguars functions as an antechamber, a space associated with activities that took place before or after access to the higher spaces above. What happened, according to the murals, was music and a petition for rain. The felines painted in the north and west porticoes play marine conch-shells trumpets with remarkable anatomical detail. The ritual they appear to depict—involving sound, water droplets, and an association with Venus—points to ceremonies tied to the agricultural calendar.