The Aztec city of Tenochtitlán (Teh-no-Chtiht-Laan), was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, the site of present-day Mexico City. It was the capital city of the Aztec civilization, consisting of the Mexica people, founded in 1325. It had about 200,000 to 300,000 people and covered approximately 20 square kilometers.
Legend says that their god of war, Huizilopochtli, told his people about the place where the city was to be established. He said it would be a place where they would find an eagle on a nopal (cactus) eating a snake. Legend says that the Aztec's came from Aztlan (an area located at the North-East of current Mexico). Thus, the symbol on the flag of Mexico.
It was connected to the mainland by causeways leading north, south, and west of the city. These causeways were interrupted by bridges that allowed canoes and other traffic to pass freely. The bridges could be pulled away if necessary to defend the city. The city itself was interlaced with a series of canals, so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe. Two double aquaducts, each more than four kilometres long provided the city with fresh water. This was intended mainly for cleaning and washing. For drinking, water from mountain springs was preferred. Most of the population liked to bathe twice a day. Moctezuma (Montezuma) was said to take four baths a day. They knew how to channel wastes out of their urban centers and knew the value of personal hygiene (at the same time, in Europe, people were dying from plague and lived in dirty and crowded cities). The Aztecs endeavoured to maximise any opportunity for dazzling engineering achievements: the lavish palace of Montezuma had 100 rooms, two zoos, a botanical garden and aquarium containing fish and aquatic birds, whilst commercial routes supplied exotic goods from the Pacific Ocean and even the Inca Empire. They invented chinampas or floating gardens. The floating gardens were constructed by bunching twigs together then stacking mud on top of the twigs. What this did, was allow the roots of the plants to grow down into the water, and anchor themselves into the lake floor. It saved space, because now the plants were growing in places where people could not build homes. The part of the city was used for annual sacrifices to appease the gods, and there is even a legend, that at one time 40,000 people were sacrificed in one day within the city.
The Templo Mayor (Great Temple aka Grat Pyramid) was dedicated to the god of water and the rain, Tlaloc, and the god of the War, Huitzilopochtli. It is the double pyramid which was probably largest and most significant of all prehispanic constructions. The Aztec architects designed the Great Temple as their model of the center of the universe, where the horizontal plane converged with the vertical plane. The horizontal plane was aligned with the four cardinal points or directions of the universe. The Great Temple was located at the point where these two axes crossed. On the vertical plane there were three celestial levels, the earth, and the nine levels of the underworld.
Regarding the construction techniques of the Aztecs: There were problems related to the muddy subsoil at Tenochtitlán, combined with the problem of the flooding that occurred when the lakes rose forced the Mexicas to adopt very special construction techniques.
The foundations were made by driving stakes from the ahuejote tree into the lake bed or into an island fortified with fragments of tezontle stone and mud. Thus the ground was prepared for laying the foundations, which consisted of a nucleus of earth and volcanic rock. This technique was so effective that the Spaniards adopted it in their first buildings.
Hernan Cortes arrived on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in 1519 with 650 men. Cortes’ army, though small in size, had the advantage of superior weapons. However, the Spaniards’ success was due to the Indian tribes who helped Cortes. In 1521 the Spaniards wasted no time destroying the besieged Tenochtitlan, and then building their own (technologically inferior) capital, Mexico City, on the rubble.
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