Aztec PantheonCity
Tenochtitlan
The Mexica capital on an island in Lake Texcoco, founded where Huitzilopochtli's sign of an eagle on a cactus appeared, and centred on the Templo Mayor; the heart of present-day Mexico City.
About Tenochtitlan
Eagle on the nopal
Tenochtitlan is the Mexica island capital in Lake Texcoco, founded where Huitzilopochtli's sign (eagle on a cactus) was seen. The Cronica Mexicayotl and Sahagun's Florentine Codex keep the migration and the Templo Mayor as Coatepec rebuilt. Twin shrines of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc stood on the pyramid. Spanish conquest ends the city; the myth is the charter of why that lake, those temples, that tribute. Do not treat it as a timeless dream: it was a working imperial capital.
On the map
Tenochtitlan among other places of the Aztec Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Florentine Codex / Mexica foundation tradition (Sahagun)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
Keep exploring
One myth a week, with its sources in a short email. The sign-up form is just below.