Introduction to Tenochtitlan

The year is 1519. Hernan Cortes, flanked by his armed and mounted Spanish conquistadors, is riding toward the island city of Tenochtitlan, center of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma, despite a series of foreboding omens, has decided to receive Cortes and provide the hospitality for which he and his people are known. Accordingly, the Spanish entourage will be escorted about this wondrous city, as grand as Seville, and more than four times its size. And now, nearly 500 years later, we are poised to follow in their footsteps as we visit a portion of Tenochtitlan-the walled sacred precinct which is the ceremonial heart of the city.

To Follow the Tour
For an introduction to the site, you might want to follow the tour, which will take you to principal viewpoints in the scene. You can do this by clicking on the pointing hand to advance to the next stop. As you navigate through the model, you will find a number of other clickable objects--icons as well as pieces of the model itself. By selecting any of these objects, you can invoke different pages in this document containing information on the history of the Aztecs, the archaeological data, a map, and the bibliographic and reference material. The headdress icon invokes pages that chronicle the meeting between Moctezuma and Cortes from Moctezuma's viewpoint. Cortes' and the conquistadors comments are found on the pages invoked by clicking on the helmet icon. (NOTE: Some of these pages are based on actual chronicles of the events, while others have sprung from the author's imagination.)

The Empire, the City, and the Precinct
The Aztec Empire at the time of Cortes' arrival extended past the Valley of Mexico to encompass more that 125,000 square miles. It stretched to the Pacific in the west, to the Gulf of Mexico in the east, and as far south as the jungles and rainforest. Tenochtitlan itself was a city of perhaps 250,000 inhabitants, larger than anything the conquistadors could have seen in Europe. It was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, and connected to the mainland via causeways. It was to be often compared to Venice, with its numerous canals and islands. The ceremonial precinct was built to be oriented to the four points of the compass. The Great Temple, the most important building within its walls, faced towards the west. There were numerous shrines and temples, residences, a school, a ball court, and other ceremonial areas within the precinct.

Moctezuma's Apprehension
There were eight bad omens that had occurred in the years leading up to the arrival of the Spaniards. Among them were a fiery comet, the burning of the Temple of Huitzilopchtli, fire streaming through the sky even though the sun was shining, and monstrous beings wandering the streets of the city. [1] Moctezuma had consulted seers to determine what the meanings of these omens might be, whether they signalled some impending crisis. While trying to determine this, news was brought from the Gulf coast about the arrival of a strange people with light skins, long beards, and short hair. Concerned that they might be Quetzalcoatl and other gods returning, as had been predicted by tradition, Moctezuma rushed to send gifts and emissaries. He was to learn, of course, that these being were not gods, but were indeed the fulfillment of the evil omens.

Letters from Cortes to the Emperor
We have a number of descriptions of Tenochtitlan set down by Cortes himself in his five letters to Emperor Charles V of Spain written between 1519 and 1526 [2]. In the second letter he describes his first encounter with the city of Tenochtitlan:

On the following day I set out again and after half a mile entered upon a causeway which crosses the middle of the lake arriving finally at the great city of Tenochtitlan which is situated at its centre. This causeway was as broad as two lances and very stoutly made such that eight horsemen could ride along it abreast, and in these two leagues either on the one hand or the other we met with three cities all containing very fine buildings and towers, especially the houses of the chief men and the mosques and little temples in which they keep their idols.

This second letter is very informative in providing the first hand view of the entire meetings and confrontations with Moctezuma, and in physical description of the city itself.