Tenochtitlan is the name of the old capital of the Aztec empire but toponymy righter would be Mexico City-Tenochtitlan (Meshico-Tenochtitlán in nahua). It was built on a island, located on the Lac Texcoco. In 1521, the Spanish Conquistador S under the orders of Hernán the Cortes destroyed most of the city then founded there the town of Mexico City which became the capital of the viceroyalty of News-Spain. Most of the lake Texcoco was drained thereafter.
Etymology of Mexico City Tenochtitlan
There exist traditionally two etymologies of the word “Tenochtitlan”:- Several chroniclers speak to us about certain Tenoch, which would have been the first sovereign of Tenochtitlan at the time of his foundation in 1325, a date besides quite as problematic (see below). It is represented on the first page of the Codex Mendoza. Tenochtitlan would be thus the “town of Tenoch”. This etymology is all the more suspect as there does not exist other case of founder éponyme in Mexico prehispanic.
- Of other sources makes derive the word from “tetl” (stone) + “nochtli” (the cactus called nopal) + “- tlan” (the place), i.e. “the place of the nopal which is on the stone”. This etymology seems a priori to correspond to the legend of the origins of the city (see below). The French mesoamericanist Christian Duverger points out that “nochtli” does not indicate the cactus but its red fruit. However, at the Aztec ones, this fruit symbolizes the heart of the victim of the human sacrifice. On a monument prehispanic, the eagle perched on the cactus, which represents the god Huitzilopochtli, holds the fruit in its greenhouses. This image summarizes the vocation of Tenochtitlan to being the place where the universe is perpetually regenerated by the human sacrifices. It is completely occulted by the representations of colonial time, where the eagle holds a snake, whose one is explained the presence badly.
Origins
Before the arrival of Aztec of many tribes Chichimèques, which had migrated of the desert steppes of north, were established in the area. According to the Aztec legends, the Aztec ones, which were the last arriveds in the valley of Mexico City, were driven out by the sovereign of the town of Culhuacan, of which they had sacrificed the girl and were inserted in the marshes of the Lake Texcoco. The priests of Huitzilopochtli would have learned by a vision that the ideal place to build a new city would be where they would see a eagle perched on a cactus nopal. The eagle would have appeared on an island where the living conditions were very difficult. The historians think that the Aztec ones settled in this not very favourable place because all the other places were occupied by more powerful tribes. But, the situation did not discourage them. They practiced the culture on Chinampa . They are rafts, covers of silt, which they posed on the lake Texcoco. That enabled them to increase surfaces of culture of the Maïs. Historians tried to find the date of foundation of the city while basing themselves on the local legends and the Aztec calendar. It is generally estimated that the city was founded in XIVe century. 1325 is the date most frequently advanced.
Description and organization of the city
Tenochtitlan counted approximately 250000 inhabitants when Spanish unloaded. Bernardino de Sahagún reports that the city counted in addition to the inhabitants: beggars, robbers and prostitutes. The night, one found in the lanes of the prostitutes, the painted teeth, with conspicuous behaviors which chewed bruyamment the tzicli (ancestor of the chewing-gum) to attract the customers. Tenochtitlan counted also another type of women: the ahuianis , women charged to have sexual relationships with the warriors.The city was divided into 4 districts ( campan ): Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Teopan and Moyotlan, the Templo Mayor being in the center. Each one of these districts was divided into 20 districts ( calpullis ), each district being crossed by streets ( tlaxilcalli ). Four large roadways crossed the city. That of the west led to Tacuba, that of north with Tepeyac, that of the south with Itzapalapa, that of the east led to the lake Texcoco. Bernal Díaz del Castillo reports that 10 horses could pass face there. Just in the north of Tenochtitlan the town of Tlatelolco was, who was a long time his rival.
Each calpulli had its market ( tianquiztli ), but there was a large market concerning all the city with Tlatelolco. the Cortes considered this market like 2 times larger than the town of Seville with more than 60.000 tradesmen. Bernardino de Sahagún gave him more reasonable figures with 20.000 tradesmen the usual days and up to 40.000 the feastdays.
Markets specialized in certain types of products were held in the small towns around Tenochtitlan. In Chollolan, jewels and invaluable stones; with Texcoco, clothing; in Acuma the market with the dogs (offered in sacrifice or used as pets).
With the center of the city, the public buildings, the temples and the schools were held. Inside a zone delimited by a wall of 300 side meters called “ Coatepantli ” (“wall of the snakes”) was the religious center. It comprised approximately 45 public buildings. Among these buildings were the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, the ground of the play of ball, the temple of the sun, the platforms used for the sacrifices…
The city had a great symmetry. all constructions were to be approved by the calmimilocatl , a civil servant charged with the " urbanisme" city.
The city had also latrines public. The excrements were collected to be used as manure. Approximately 1000 people worked moreover with cleaning of the city.
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