The Founding Of Tenochtitlan - The City Of Destiny
by Linda Patterson
Between 1325 the time it was founded and its fall almost two centuries later, Tenochtitlan which received its name from the prickly pear plants which grew among the rocks near the site of its construction - was among the world's most magnificent cities. Sometimes known as Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tenochtitlan was undeniably incredible and a majestic site to behold; It is the Aztec's empire capital and most significant city and its construction and flourishing represented nothing compared to a prophecy which was perfectly fulfilled, and even to the European invaders who aided to finally to conquer it.
Together with its sister city known as Tlatelolco, Teotihuacan was amongst the two major altered (an Aztec word which means a self-contained political unit) found in the so called today's Mexico City. Ranging between 8 and 14 square kilometers, its centre was found on a small island which faces the western side of Lake Texcoco. During its peak, over 200,000 souls made Teotichuacan as a home. Owing to its size, population, as well as importance, it was deemed to be a truly world-class metropolis; in Europe, only the ancient and great cities such as Seville, Paris, and Constantinople can be made as a good comparison.
Topography
A series of causeways which pointed in each of the cardinal directions connect the city centre to mainland. Bridges were made to be removable for defensive purposes in times of siege or warfare which allowed canoes and several other river traffic to pass by. Furthermore, the city centre was sustained by a network of canal which permitted all parts of the city to be visited through canoe and by foot.
During the reign of Moctezuma, a levee was built. By feeding them from surrounding spring water, it kept the waters around Tenochitilan fresh; the normal component of the lake was partially salty water and was kept away behind a dike to the east. Double aqueducts worked to supply the city with fresh water from springs at Chapultepec. Farming was carried out primarily by way of chinampa; popularly known as "floating gardens", these were in fact man made islands, developed by walling off rectangular areas of lake bed and overlaying them with deposit as well as fertilizer, making perfect plots for growing beans, squash, maize, tomatoes, along with other renowned Mesoamerican crops.
Incredibly Grand Palaces And Grandiose Temples
Tenochtitlan was split up into twenty districts, having 3 vast main streets bridging its whole width. Although every district had its very own market (known as a tiyanquztli in the Nahuatl language), the main commercial centre of the region was only nearby, within the sister city of Tlatloco - A huge market that can accommodate 60,000 people during ceremonial occasions.
Apart from the remarkable temple of Moctezuma, which was made up of its own botanical gardens, zoo and aquarium, the various public buildings of Tenochtitlan consisted of several schools, temples, as well as a 300-meter wide walled centre for religious rituals. A tlatchtli ball court, the Temple of Quetzelcoatl, and the huge Templo Mayor are few of the most well known buildings which happen to be rediscovered and excavated. Damaged by the Spanish conquerors, its remains had sunk into the soft lake bed sediment until eventually they were excavated in the 1980s, unveiling several other artifacts such as the priceless Aztec Calendar Stone and enormous ceremonial discs, to name a few. It's quite morbid that the city was also comprised of temples which are made into to a place for sacrificial combat by ritual gladiators, and tzompantli, which are racks that display the skulls of these and other sacrificial victims.
In a general way, Tenochtitlan grew to be like a noteworthy city owing to the bizarre instances involving its founding. As mentioned in their legends, previous to Tenochtitlan was established, the Aztecs were a vagabond; having been provided with consent to settle in the fertile valley of Mexico, they harboured a prediction that they will know the place to find the city that would definitely become their permanent home by the sight of a hawk eating a snake while perched on a cactus. By all accounts, the place where the said prophecy manifested itself was not ideal; initially, the future site of Tenochtitlan was a little more than a small swampy island in freshwater marshes or brackish coastal swamps. Yet, it was the industrious Aztecs who developed it, enhancing the small natural island into Mesoamerica's premier polity, which went to lead every bordering settlement. Tenochtitlan would after that become the lynchpin of Aztec political and religious unity, as well as the centre of trade routes which reached as far as the Gulf of Mexico and also the Pacific Ocean - and then, based on what some experts claim, they have reached their southern neighbor's land, the Incas, then gave rise for the hemisphere's initial global economic highway.
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