Tenochtitlán
In 1325 the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlán (tay-noach-TEE-tlahn) (Náhuatl: "place of the cactus fruit") on an island in Lake Texcoco. Legend has it that Huitzilopochtli bade the tribe make their home where they came across an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake. The eagle symbolised the sun and thus Huitzilopochtli also, while the red cactus fruit represent the human heart, consumed by the sun (this same Aztec emblem survives today on the Mexican flag).
His sister city, Tlatelolco, was founded some years later, around 1337 (Matos Moctezuma 1989). This story, as revealed by the Boturini Codex, as well as many archaeological steles, constitutes the modern Mexican legend of the Central Valley people. It is uncertain whether this is a true reflection of their history or a fictionalized account, for the Toltecs also claimed an origin to the north. Since the Mexicas valued their ancestors to a great extent, copying them stylistically and architecturally, the Mexica foundation tale might in fact be an adoption and modification of the Toltec story.
Led by their High Priest Ténoch and claiming to be the successors of the great Toltecs whose cultural inheritance they usurped, in a short time the arrogant Mexica had transformed the inhospitable swampy island into an economically self-sufficient domain. This they did with the aid of chinampas (artificial islands used for cultivation; see Xochimilco near Mexico City). The agricultural portion of this expansion was successful because of the invention of the chinampas or floating gardens. The floating gardens were constructed by bunching twigs together then stacking mud on top of the twigs. They were not anchored at first and could be towed until the plants roots anchored into the lake floor. The Aztecs connected the island to the mainland by three causeways that ran next to dikes that were built to keep the fresh water of Lake Texcoco separate from other salty lakes of the area. The dikes also protected the agricultural chinampas. Canals ran between the chinampas; they were used to convey traffic through the city, including to and from the market of Tlatelolco.
Tenochtitlan, the Place of Tenoch, or, as it was later styled, Mexico City, was the stronghold of the Aztecs and the center of their culture. The marshy islands upon which it had been built were linked to the mainland by three long causeways with gates that regulated the flow and the depth of the water. From a neighboring hill potable water was conveyed to the city by an aqueduct. Tenochtitlan was arranged around a great square that was surrounded by a stone wall which had gates leading to the three causeways. Trade was carried on where trees shaded the narrow streets and also in the great square where public gatherings were held. In and around that square were large communal structures, official buildings called tccpans, armories or "houses of javelins," and pyramidal temples, which included educational buildings and the residences of priests. Communal buildings were one or two stories high with low parapets. The main tecpan was capped by observation towers. Temples were mounted by steps: they were crowned by wooden oratories as well as by sacrificial stones. Inhabitants of the capital city appear to have had a different status from those of the adjacent towns.
Nearly two centuries of occupation by the Mexicans had wrought great changes in the marshy banks of Lake Texcoco, where they had taken up their permanent abode in 1325. The poor pueblo of Tenochtitlan had become a pueblo, comparable - according to the Spanish visitors - with the fairest European capital. The first settlement had undoubtedly consisted of four buildings, each capable of sheltering a large division of the tribe after the defection of the Tlatelolco and Chapultepec factions. The pueblo preserved up to the time of the Conquest four divisions, undoubtedly built up around and upon the four communal houses first erected, these divisions being known as Moyotlan, Teapan, Aztacalco, and Cuepapan, - probably meaning, respectively, " the place of the mosquito," " the place of the god," "the place of the heron's house," and " the place of the dike." These four divisions were succeeded, upon the rebuilding of the city, after the Conquest, by the wards or parishes of San Pablo, San Juan, Santa Maria la Redonda, and San Sebastian.
To the limited amount of ground first occupied, more was added from time to time by filling in; and at the same time the waters were, as we have seen, deepened and broadened on all sides of the pueblo by means of the causeways, designed not so much to provide means of access to the mainland as to isolate the pueblo and increase its defences. The earliest built of these causeways was known as Acachananco, and was that running south and connecting with the mainland at Huitzilopocho (Churubusco). From a point on this causeway named Xoloc (near what is now known as San Antonio Abad) another causeway ran to Cuyuacan. A causeway running nearly in direct continuation of the first connected the pueblo with the mainland at Tepeyacac (GuadalupeHidalgo) on the north, while the most famous as well as the shortest was that running westerly, nearly at right angles to the other two and connecting Tenochtitlan with Tlacopan (Tacuba). Most probably this lastnamed causeway separated Moyotlan from Teapan, while the other two causeways formed the dividing line between those two quarters and Aztacalco and Cuepapan. Each of these quarters contained a teocalli or temple, and at the meeting-place of the three great causeways, and belonging equally to each of the four quarters, stood the great teocalli, pyramidal in form, with its due apportionment of ground surrounded by its great wall of stone, - the coatapantli, or serpent wall. Tepeyacac, Huitzilopocho, and Cuyuacan, the termini of two of the causeways.
Chapultepec was a sacred spot. As we have seen, it furnished the fresh-water supply of Tenochtitlan, and was also used as a place of sepulture. Tlatelolco was the equivalent of a fifth ward of the city, though probably larger than any of the other four. The Chinampas produced the vegetables necessary for the subsistence of the population of Tenochtitlan, and the tributary pueblos far and near furnished the other necessaries of life and all that constituted the wealth of Mexico.
The houses of Tenochtitlan were constructed at first of reeds and bamboo, such as are now seen in some parts of Mexico, even as near the capital as the Chinampa pueblos of Santa Anita and Ixtacalco. Later, turf and adobe (sun-dried brick) were used, and as we have seen, stone began to be used for buildings in the time of Acamapichtli. We learn from Peter Martyr, of the seventeenth century, that the houses of the common people were commodious, each being designed to shelter several families, - residence by families being characteristic of the Aztecs. They were of one story only, and had thatched roofs. They were built of stone to the height of several feet, as a protection against the rising waters of the lake. The superstructures were of adobe and timber. Canals to some extent took the place of streets, a broad canal separating Tenochtitlan from Tlatelolco.
Estimates of the population of Tenochtitlan at the time of the conquest vary widely. Possibly it contained fifty thousand souls, though other estimates suggest that with a population of at least 300,000 inhabitants, it was five times the size of the contemporary London of Henry VIII. With a total area of approximately 20 square miles and Tenochtitlán was not only one of the most extensive cities of the world, but with its public toilets, aqueducts, and schools, it was also one of the most modern.
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