Aztec Tenochtitlan founded on Lake Texcoco

1324

The Mexica people, guided by a priestly vision of an eagle devouring a serpent on a cactus, drove stakes into the marshy island and began building the city that would become the largest in the pre-Columbian Americas. Canals, causeways, and chinampas would turn a swamp into an imperial capital whose population would eventually rival contemporary Paris or Constantinople.