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69-568: The calmecac of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan , was located in the ceremonial centre of the city and was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl . It was situated conveniently close to the Templo Mayor, where calmecac graduates destined for priesthood would perform the rituals they had been trained in. The main shrine was judged to be 150 feet tall and was a larger structure than the Templo Mayor. The calmecac's courtyard roof featured prominently visible motifs in

138-452: A temāzcalli , similar to a sauna bath, which is still used in the south of Mexico. This was also popular in other Mesoamerican cultures. 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 (...) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether

207-422: A central market. Altepeme were typically multiethnic and communal cohesion was often maintained through territorial exclusiveness. Local rulers of altepeme generally retained their authority over taxation and land distribution while under the indirect rule of an empire in exchange for their submission, participation in military campaigns, and tribute payments. However, starting with Moctezuma Ilhuicamina I in

276-456: A collection of altepetl units and to speak of them on those terms. The concept is comparable to Maya cah and Mixtec ñuu . Altepeme formed a vast complex network which predated and outlasted larger empires, such as the Aztec and Tarascan state . Established altepeme were characterized by a central temple dedicated to a patron god particular to the identity of the altepetl and

345-546: A place within the new colonial order. Matlatzinca and Otomi peoples in the Valley of Toluca as well as Mixtecs in Oaxaca used baptisms as a means of reclaiming local authority after years of Mexica imperialism in the face of Spanish rule. Throughout the 1520s and 1530s, altepeme retained their autonomy through Christianization and local rulers now adopted new Spanish Christian names: "the names of local elite began to echo those of

414-441: A population of 212,500 living on 13.5 km (5.2 sq mi). It is also said that at one time, Moctezuma had rule over an empire of almost five million people in central and southern Mexico because he had extended his rule to surrounding territories to gain tribute and prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. When Cortés and his men invaded Tenochtitlan , Moctezuma II chose to welcome Cortés as an ambassador rather than risk

483-511: A war which might quickly be joined by aggrieved indigenous people. As Cortés approached Tenochtitlan , the Tenochcah celebrated Toxcatl . At this event the most prominent warriors of each altepetl would dance in front of a huge statue of Huitzilopochtli . The Spanish leader, Pedro de Alvarado , who was left in charge, worried that the natives planned a surprise attack. He captured three natives and tortured them until they said that this

552-612: Is 4 meters (13 ft 1 in) in diameter and weighs over 18.1 metric tons (20 short tons; 17.9 long tons). It was once located half-way up the great pyramid. This sculpture was carved around 1470 under the rule of King Axayacatl , the predecessor of Tizoc , and is said to tell the history of the Mexicas and to prophesy the future. In August 1987, archaeologists discovered a mix of 1,789 human bones five meters (16 ft 5 in) below street level in Mexico City. The burial dates back to

621-643: The pochteca were merchants who traveled all of Mesoamerica trading. The membership of this class was based on heredity. Pochteca could become very rich because they did not pay taxes, but they had to sponsor the ritual feast of Xocotl Huetzi from the wealth that they obtained from their trade expeditions. Status was displayed by the location and type of house where a person lived. Ordinary people lived in houses made of reeds plastered with mud and roofed with thatch. People who were better off had houses of adobe brick with flat roofs. The wealthy had houses of stone masonry with flat roofs. They most likely made up

690-459: The traza . Although many native residents died during the siege of Tenochtitlan, the indigenous still had a strong presence in the city, and were settled in two main areas of the island, designated San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco, each with a municipal council that functioned the entire colonial period. San Juan Tenochtitlan was a Spanish administrative creation, which amalgamated four indigenous sections, with each losing territory to

759-511: The tzompantli or rack of skulls; the Sun Temple, which was dedicated to Tonatiuh ; the Eagle's House, which was associated with warriors and the ancient power of rulers; the platforms for the gladiatorial sacrifice; and some minor temples. Outside was the palace of Moctezuma with 100 rooms, each with its own bath, for the lords and ambassadors of allies and conquered people. Also located nearby

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828-509: The Americas . The altepetl was constituted of smaller units known as calpolli and was typically led by a single dynastic ruler known as a tlatoani , although examples of shared rule between up to five rulers are known. Each altepetl had its own jurisdiction, origin story, and served as the center of Indigenous identity. Residents referred to themselves by the name of their altepetl rather than, for instance, as "Mexicas". "Altepetl"

897-455: The calmecac served primarily as a center for religious and military instruction in order to swell both ranks with diligent and skilled priests and soldiers, students also "learned various manual skills." The name calmecac is a combination of the words calli , meaning "house," and the word mecatl , meaning "cords, ropes, whips." Taken together, calmecac can be read as "the house of whips or penitence." It has also been directly translated as

966-437: The calmecac . However, although the calmecac has been characterized as for elites only, Sahagun's account says that at times the macehualtin were assigned to the calmecac as well and trained for the priesthood. Codex Mendoza's account of the calmecac emphasizes the possibilities of upward mobility for young commoner men, ( macehualtin ), educated in the telpochcalli . Promising sons of nobles would be trained especially by

1035-425: The calmecac, which would be their home for the duration of their training. The parents brought their children to the calmecac to partake in a dedication ceremony in the presence of the calmecac and telpochcalli authorities. In a series of rituals that lasted hours, the new students were bathed, named, and marked upon the hip and chest to "designate their adult role." After the children's ears had been pierced and

1104-580: The 1440s, Aztec imperialist efforts over the altepetl deepened by removing the powers of taxation from local rulers and replacing non-compliant rulers with military governors. These heightened pressures produced unstable conditions in Mesoamerica in which altepetl frequently rebelled by withholding tributes and pursuing secession . Cuauhnahuac, a major altepetl of the southern Aztec empire, rebelled on three occasions. The Aztecs responded with intense violence, which only fueled more violence in response. At

1173-530: The 1480s and lies at the foot of the main temple in the sacred ceremonial precinct of the Aztec capital. The bones are from children, teenagers and adults. A complete skeleton of a young woman was also found at the site. Altepetl The altepetl ( Classical Nahuatl : āltepētl [aːɬ.ˈté.peːt͡ɬ] , plural altepeme or altepemeh ) was the local, ethnically -based political entity, usually translated into English as " city-state ", of pre-Columbian Nahuatl -speaking societies in

1242-489: The Mexica capital. Tenochtitlan was one of two Mexica āltepētl ( city-states or polities ) on the island, the other being Tlatelolco . Traditionally, the name Tenochtitlan was thought to come from Nahuatl tetl [ˈtetɬ] ("rock") and nōchtli [ˈnoːtʃtɬi] (" prickly pear ") and is often thought to mean, "Among the prickly pears [growing among] rocks." However, one attestation in

1311-510: The Nahuatl word for school. The cords were sometimes made of malinall grass and used in acts of penance. Piercing parts of the body with sharp grass or other implements was done to connect with the cosmos and preserve eternal unity. This unity was visibly symbolised by spirals, or cutaway shell motifs. The spirals featured on the Tenochtitlan calmecac were designed to look like snails and symbolised

1380-581: The Spaniards were seeking gold, Moctezuma expressed that he had very little of the sort, but all of it was to be given to Cortés if he desired it. Soon after arriving in Tenochtitlan , Cortés came up against problems. At Vera Cruz , the officer left in charge received a letter from Qualpopoca , the leader of Nueva Almería , asking to become a vassal of the Spaniards. He requested that officials be sent to him so that he could confirm his submission. To reach

1449-486: The Spanish traza . The Spanish laid out the streets of the traza in a checker board pattern, with straight streets and plazas at intervals, whereas the indigenous portions of the city were irregular in layout and built of modest materials. In the colonial period both San Juan Tenochtitlan and Santiago Tlatelolco retained jurisdiction over settlements on the mainland that they could draw on for labor and tribute demanded by

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1518-591: The Spanish but soon joined the conquest effort as a crucial ally against the Aztec Empire. After the fall of Tenōchtitlan in 1521, the Spanish increasingly demanded that altepetl rulers publicly destroy their figures of deities (referred to as idols by the Spanish) and whitewash temple walls. While destroying idols had represented a transfer of sovereignty and tributes to the conquering power in Mesoamerican politics, with

1587-407: The Spanish capital of Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. Despite the extensive damage to the built environment, the site retained symbolic power and legitimacy as the capital of the Aztec empire, which Cortés sought to appropriate. For a time this ciudad de españoles , the highest rank in the Spanish hierarchy of settlement designation, was called Mexico–Tenochtitlan. Charles Gibson devotes

1656-556: The Spanish, but increasingly those subordinate settlements ( sujetos ) were able to gain their autonomy with their own rulers and separate relationship with the Spanish rulers. Concern about the health of the indigenous population in early post-conquest Mexico–Tenochtitlan led to the founding of a royal hospital for indigenous residents. There are a number of colonial-era pictorial manuscripts dealing with Tenochtitlan–Tlatelolco, which shed light on litigation between Spaniards and indigenous over property. An account with information about

1725-628: The animals. There was also a botanical garden and an aquarium . The aquarium had ten ponds of salt water and ten ponds of fresh water, containing various fish and aquatic birds. Places like this also existed in Texcoco , Chapultepec , Huaxtepec (now called Oaxtepec ), and Texcotzingo . Tenochtitlan can be considered the most complex society in Mesoamerica in regard to social stratification. The complex system involved many social classes . The macehualtin were commoners who lived outside

1794-487: The area. The calmecac was typically reserved for sons of Aztec noblemen, while the young commoner men, macehualtin, received military training in the Tēlpochcalli ( [teːɬpot͡ʃˈkalːi] "house of youth"). The placement of noble youth in the telpochcalli might have been by lesser wives' or concubines' sons or younger sons, perhaps of commoner status so that the boys did not have to compete with noble youths in

1863-434: The basic training which was also taught in the telpochcalli . The priests oversaw all aspects of the students' education, preparing the children for a variety of careers outside of priesthood. Elite students, in particular, could progress to multiple jobs within the Aztec government, including academic, economic, judicial, diplomatic, and administrative roles. Students commenced formal military training around age fifteen. While

1932-400: The ceremony was concluded, the Aztec temple held a celebratory feast. Instruction at the calmecac did not begin gradually. Four-year-olds were immediately introduced to adult ceremonies, with discipline and punishment beginning at the age of seven. The students received instruction in songs, rituals, reading and writing, the calendar ( tōnalpōhualli [toːnaɬpoːˈwalːi] ) and all

2001-617: The city were woodcuts published in Augsburg around 1522. Each calpulli had its own tiyanquiztli (marketplace), but there was also a main marketplace in Tlatelolco – Tenochtitlan 's sister city. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés estimated it was twice the size of the city of Salamanca with about 60,000 people trading daily. Bernardino de Sahagún provides a more conservative population estimate of 20,000 on ordinary days and 40,000 on feast days. There were also specialized markets in

2070-476: The city. The city was interlaced with a series of canals , so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe . Lake Texcoco was the largest of five interconnected lakes. Since it formed in an endorheic basin , Lake Texcoco was brackish . During the reign of Moctezuma I , the " levee of Nezahualcoyotl " was constructed, reputedly designed by Nezahualcoyotl . Estimated to be 12 to 16 km (7.5 to 9.9 mi) in length,

2139-480: The city; and began its rebuilding, despite opposition. The reconstruction involved the creation of a central area designated for Spanish use (the traza ). The outer Indian section, now dubbed San Juan Tenochtitlan , continued to be governed by the previous indigenous elite and was divided into the same subdivisions as before. The people of Tenochtitlan were soon exposed to diseases to which they had no immunity. Symptoms were often delayed for up to ten days, when

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2208-521: The community. Schools that qualified as calmecacs furthered the Aztec religion and forms of government and ensured continued stability by training the society's youth in academic, political, and military skills. In addition to the calmecac in Tenochtitlan, rural villages throughout the Aztec empire would have had calmecacs of their own, ensuring that all civilians had access to comprehensive instruction in religious practice. Tenochtitlan Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan ,

2277-475: The early 20th century, but major excavations did not take place until 1978–1982, after utility workers came across a massive stone disc depicting the nude dismembered body of the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui . The disc is 3.25 meters (10 ft 8 in) in diameter, and is held at the Templo Mayor Museum. The ruins, constructed over seven periods, were built on top of each other. The resulting weight of

2346-460: The fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, and consequently brought an end to the Aztec empire Tenochtitlan's main temple complex, the Templo Mayor , was dismantled and the central district of the Spanish colonial city was constructed on top of it. The great temple was destroyed by the Spanish during the construction of a cathedral. The location of the Templo Mayor was rediscovered in

2415-513: The fall of Tenōchtitlan, the balance of power shifted heavily in favor of the Spanish, who forced Christianization upon the various altepeme . As it became clear to each altepetl that the Spanish were in Mesoamerica to stay, they quickly learned to use conversion as a means of gaining political capital. By 1523, nobles in Tenōchtitlan had requested baptisms and provided them with properties for their monasteries and churches to assure themselves

2484-402: The final chapter of his classic work, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule , to what he called "The City", with later historians building on his work. The Spaniards established a cabildo or town council, which had jurisdiction over the Spanish residents. The Spanish established a Europeans-only zone in the center of the city, an area of 13 blocks in each direction of the central plaza, which was

2553-412: The grandest ever in Mesoamerica. Hernan Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519. Although there are not precise numbers, the city's population has been estimated at between 200,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, placing Tenochtitlan among the largest cities in the world at that time. Compared to the cities of Europe, only Paris , Venice and Constantinople might have rivaled it. It was five times

2622-550: The house complexes that were arranged around the inner court. The higher officials in Tenochtitlan lived in the great palace complexes that made up the city. Adding even more complexity to Aztec social stratification was the calpōlli . Calpōlli is a group of families related by either kinship or proximity. These groups consist of both elite members of Aztec society and commoners. Elites provided commoners with arable land and nonagricultural occupations, and commoners performed services for chiefs and gave tribute. Tenochtitlan

2691-409: The infection would spread throughout the body, causing sores, pain, and high fever. People were weak to the point that they could not move, nor obtain food and water. Burial of the dead became difficult to impossible, due to the pervasiveness of the people's illness. The people of Tenochtitlan began to starve and weaken. The death toll rose steadily over the course of the next 60 days. Cortés founded

2760-420: The invasion of the Spanish, Indigenous peoples soon realized "that in the Spanish context it implied a far more sweeping, cosmic transformation." From the inception of contact between the altepetl and the Spanish conquistadors, submission to Christianity was non-negotiable. As described by historian Ryan Dominic Crewe, "the Spanish offered two clear options: accept Christianity and be saved in this world and in

2829-451: The island city of Tenochtitlan. The pipiltin were noblemen who were relatives of leaders and former leaders, and lived in the confines of the island. Cuauhipiltin , or eagle nobles, were commoners who impressed the nobles with their martial prowess, and were treated as nobles. Teteuctin were the highest class, rulers of various parts of the empire, including the king. Tlacohtin were slaves or indentured servants . Finally,

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2898-562: The late 16th-century manuscript known as "the Bancroft dialogues" suggest the second vowel was short, so that the true etymology remains uncertain. However, it is also thought that the city was named after Tenoch . Tenochtitlan covered an estimated 8 to 13.5 km (3.1 to 5.2 sq mi), situated on the western side of the shallow Lake Texcoco . At the time of Spanish conquests, Mexico City comprised both Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco . The city extended from north to south, from

2967-444: The levee was completed c.  1453 . The levee kept fresh spring -fed water in the waters around Tenochtitlan and kept the brackish waters beyond the dike, to the east. Two double aqueducts , each more than 4 km (2.5 mi) long and made of terracotta , provided the city with fresh water from the springs at Chapultepec . This was intended mainly for cleaning and washing. For drinking, water from mountain springs

3036-562: The main temples in Tenōchtitlan, Texcoco , and Tlaxcala, including the Temple of Huītzilōpōchtli , which housed the archives of Texcoco. This wave of violence initiated by the Spanish missionaries emanated outward throughout what would soon become New Spain . A letter written by Christianized Indigenous nobles to the Spanish crown in 1560 records that "people of many altepetl were forced and tortured [or] were hanged or burned because they did not want to relinquish idolatry, and unwillingly received

3105-403: The men who were turning out to be their overlords rather than their liberators." Spanish missionaries imposed forms of symbolic and physical violence in the altepetl in order to erect "a new universe of meaning" for Indigenous peoples. A coordinated assault was launched by missionaries and conquistadors on Indigenous priests and adherents on January 1, 1525, which resulted in the destruction of

3174-506: The military orders of the Jaguar warriors ( ōcēlōmeh [oːseːˈloːmeʔ] ) or Eagle warriors ( cuāuhtin [ˈkʷaːʍtin] ) in their quarters, the cuāuhcalli ( [kʷaːʍˈkalːi] ). Codex Mendoza's account largely ignores class distinctions between the calmecac and the telpochcalli . Emperor Moctezuma II was educated at and graduated from Tenochtitlan's calmecac . Students as young as five to seven years of age would enter

3243-406: The next, or resist it and face damnation in both." Prior to the fall of Tenōchtitlan, the Spanish could not force compliance because of their heavy dependency on those whom they were admonishing. Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote that "more often than not hungry Spanish soldiers would read their protocol and then promptly settle into a meal prepared by those they had just admonished." After

3312-455: The north border of Tlatelolco to the swamps , which by that time were gradually disappearing to the west; the city ended more or less at the present location of Avenida Bucareli . The city was connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways leading to the north, south, and west. The causeways were interrupted by bridges that allowed canoes and other water traffic to pass freely. The bridges could be pulled away, if necessary, to protect

3381-499: The other central Mexican cities. In the center of the city were the public buildings, temples, and palaces. Inside a walled square, 500 meters (1,600 ft) to a side, was the ceremonial center. There were about 45 public buildings, including: the Templo Mayor , which was dedicated to the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli and the Rain God Tlaloc ; the temple of Quetzalcoatl ; the tlachtli ( ball game court) with

3450-399: The province, the officers would have to travel through hostile land. The officer in charge of Vera Cruz decided to send four officers to meet with Qualpopoca. When they arrived, they were captured and two were killed, the other two escaping through the woods. Upon their return to Vera Cruz, the officer in charge was infuriated, and led troops to storm Almería. Here they learned that Moctezuma

3519-478: The shape of spirals, each of which reached eight feet in height. Aztec rulers built their own individual versions of the calmecac upon the preceding one. These seven buildings were discovered in the mid 2000s when a team of archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) began working on the site as part of History's Urban Archaeology Program (PAU) after the 1985 earthquake damaged

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3588-529: The size of the London of Henry VIII . In a letter to the Spanish king, Cortés wrote that Tenochtitlan was as large as Seville or Córdoba . Cortés' men were in awe at the sight of the splendid city and many wondered if they were dreaming. Although some popular sources put the number as high as 350,000 the most common estimates of the population are of over 200,000 people. One of the few comprehensive academic surveys of Mesoamerican city and town sizes arrived at

3657-447: The structures caused them to sink into the sediment of Lake Texcoco; the ruins now rest at an angle instead of horizontally. Mexico City's Zócalo , the Plaza de la Constitución , is located at the site of Tenochtitlan's original central plaza and market, and many of the original calzadas still correspond to modern city streets. The Aztec calendar stone was located in the ruins. This stone

3726-418: The things that we saw were not a dream? (...) 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. The city was divided into four zones, or camps ; each camp was divided into 20 districts ( calpullis , Nahuatl languages : calpōlli , pronounced [kaɬˈpoːlːi] , meaning "large house"); and each calpulli , or 'big house',

3795-648: The time of Spanish invasion in 1519, the Aztec Empire alone consisted of approximately 450 altepeme . The Spanish recognized and exploited the preexisting political divisions among the various altepeme and the Aztecs, inciting dissident city-states to rebel. No "super-altepetl" identity existed to unite against the Spanish. The Totonacs of Cempoala were among the first to ally with the Spanish, having only recently been brought under Aztec control after many years of resistance. The Tlaxcaltec of Tlaxcala initially resisted

3864-460: The unity intrinsic to the Aztec religion. After Spanish invaders destroyed the capital's calmecac , their artwork misrepresented the spirals as much smaller. When archaeologist Raúl Barrera uncovered seven of the rooftop spirals during the PAU excavation, the ornaments became "one of the most distinctive motifs of ancient Mexico. The calmecac tied together the military, political and sacred hierarchies of

3933-479: The war of Tenochtitlan against its neighbor Tlatelolco in 1473 and the Spanish conquest in 1521 is the Anales de Mexico y Tlatelolco, 1473, 1521–22 . Anthropologist Susan Kellogg has studied colonial-era inheritance patterns of Nahuas in Mexico City, using Nahuatl - and Spanish-language testaments. On the 13th of August 1521, after over two months of fighting,Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés succeeded in bringing about

4002-570: Was captured by the Tlaxcaltec and the Spanish in 1521 . At its peak, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas . It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain . Today, the ruins of Tenochtitlan are in the historic center of the Mexican capital. The World Heritage Site of Xochimilco contains what remains of the geography (water, boats, floating gardens ) of

4071-416: Was a large Mexican altepetl in what is now the historic center of Mexico City . The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city. The city was built on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico . The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it

4140-452: Was a polyvalent term rooting the social and political order in the creative powers of a sacred mountain that contained the ancestors, seeds and life-giving forces of the community. The word is a combination of the Nahuatl words ātl (meaning "water") and tepētl (meaning "mountain"). A characteristic Nahua mode was to imagine the totality of the people of a region or of the world as

4209-564: Was crossed by streets or tlaxilcalli . There were three main streets that crossed the city, each leading to one of the three causeways to the mainland of Tepeyac , Iztapalapa , and Tlacopan . Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported that they were wide enough for ten horses. Surrounding the raised causeways were artificial floating gardens with canal waterways and gardens of plants, shrubs, and trees. The calpullis were divided by channels used for transportation, with wood bridges that were removed at night. The earliest European images of

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4278-451: Was greeted by the ruler and his lords, but forbidden to touch him. Cortés gave him a necklace of crystals, placing it over his neck. They were then brought to a large house that would serve as their home for their stay in the city. Once they were settled, Moctezuma himself sat down and spoke with Cortés. The great ruler declared that anything that they needed would be theirs to have. He was thrilled to have visitors of such stature. Although

4347-450: Was indeed planned to happen. During the festival, the Spaniards came heavily armed and closed off every exit from the courtyard so that no one would escape. This happened during their last days in Tenochtitlan. Nobles lined each side of the city's main causeway, which extended about a league (4.83 km). Walking down the center came Moctezuma II, with two lords at his side, one his brother, the ruler of Iztapalapa . Cortés dismounted and

4416-572: Was perpetually enlarged as Tenochtitlan grew to become the largest and most powerful city in Mesoamerica . Commercial routes were developed that brought goods from places as far as the Gulf of Mexico , the Pacific Ocean and perhaps even the Inca Empire . After a flood of Lake Texcoco , the city was rebuilt during the rule of Ahuitzotl , which was between 1486 and 1502, in a style that made it one of

4485-428: Was preferred. Most of the population liked to bathe twice a day; Moctezuma was said to take four baths a day. According to the context of Aztec culture in literature, the soap that they most likely used was the root of a plant called copalxocotl ( Saponaria americana ), and to clean their clothes they used the root of metl ( Agave americana ). Also, the upper classes and pregnant women washed themselves in

4554-421: Was supposedly the one who ordered the officers executed. Back in Tenochtitlan , Cortés detained Moctezuma and questioned him. Though no serious conclusions were reached, this negatively affected the relationship between Moctezuma and the Spaniards. Cortés subsequently besieged Tenochtitlan for over 90 days, causing a famine. Having gained control, he then directed the systematic destruction and leveling of

4623-403: Was the cuicalli , or house of the songs, and the calmecac . The city had great symmetry. All constructions had to be approved by the calmimilocatl , a functionary in charge of the city planning. The palace of Moctezuma II also had two houses or zoos , one for birds of prey and another for other birds , reptiles , and mammals . About 300 people were dedicated to the care of

4692-482: Was the capital of the Mexican civilization of the Mexica people, founded in 1325. The state religion of the Mexica civilization awaited the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy: the wandering tribes would find the destined site for a great city whose location would be signaled by an eagle with a snake in its beak perched atop a cactus ( Opuntia ), which had grown from the heart of Copil . The Mexica saw this vision on what

4761-614: Was then a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco , a vision that is now immortalized in Mexico's coat of arms and on the Mexican flag . Not deterred by the unfavourable terrain, they set about building their city, using the chinampa system (misnamed as "floating gardens") for agriculture and to dry and expand the island. A thriving culture developed, and the Mexica civilization came to dominate other tribes around Mexico. The small natural island

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