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Astounding Tenochtitlan: Capital of Mexica Empire
Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Mexica Empire, was a city-state founded in 1325 on an island -- the largest city in the pre-Columbian world.With its population of 200-300,000, only Paris, Venice, and Constantinople were larger.
 
Hernán Cortés and his men werein awe of the splendid city and wondered if they were a dream. Two double aqueducts constructed during the reign of Montezuma I provided the city with fresh spring-fed water – good for baths twice a day!
Bernal Díaz del Castillo said in The Conquest of New Spain: When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land, we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments.... I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.

Click the first 2 photos below for more information.  Click the next 2 photos to watch videos. The first video is in Aztec and Spanish and depicts the meeting of the Aztecs and Spaniards in Tenochtitlan in 1519. Moctezuma Xocoyotzin II, who ruled the Aztecs from 1502 to 1520, graciously received Hernán Cortes and his men. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, Cortes arrived just when their prophecies led them to expect the return of Quetzalcoatl, their God.

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