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.