#tenochitlan

The Aztecs built dams in order to control floods, separate salt water from fresh, and aid agriculture; and they utilized an advanced form of construction to keep their heavy stone buildings from sinking — yet the waters pursued them. Thus various layers of temples were built, one upon the other, in order to reinforce earlier structures as well as to celebrate the power of new rulers. As you walk through the ruins today, informed by well-written plaques along the way, you can actually see the remains of layers of the buildings as they were built one upon the other.

The Aztecs further developed established Latin American trade routes, which extended north into what is now the southern United States, and South into what is now Guatemala. They conquered smaller towns and required the towns to pay them in goods on a regular basis. Offerings and sacrifice were an important part of their culture. These ranged from objects from far-away lands (such as seashells), to reproductions (such as human teeth made from shells and jade statues of gods) of symbolic importance, to blood.

Countless animals were sacrificed and a great menagerie was maintained at Tenochtitlan, likely in part for this purpose. DNA testing has also revealed the blood of countless humans on temple floors and pyramid steps. Some of this blood was given through valorous suicide as a personal and community sacrifice to the gods. Other blood and bones have been linked to teenagers and children, who could not have gone so willingly to the ceremonial knife.

When Cortés and his conquistadores came upon Tenochtitlan, they were astounded by the building upon man-made islands, the raising and lowering of bridges in the causeways which protected them, and the organization of the Aztec empire. It was said that Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities of the world, comparable in Europe only to what is now called Istanbul. The leader of the empire at that time was Montezuma II.

The only written accounts of the conflict between Montezuma and Cortés were authored by Spaniards with politics in mind, and are thus a source of controversy. But it seems that Cortés was joined by some natives that had been subjugated by the Tenochtitlan empire, and that the Aztecs may have envisioned signs of the coming of the Spanish. Although the natives of Latin America may have initially been rewarded for their aid in overthrowing powerful Indigena rulers throughout Mesoamerica, they soon became exploited subjects of the Spanish empire.

Not only did the Spanish demolish most of Tenochitlan and build over the rest of it, they also built the tallest steeple of the cathedral a few meters higher than the tallest structure of the Aztec temple. They destoyed the dams that protected Tenochtitlan, and at one point, the subsequent Spanish city was underwater as a result. To this day, the historic center continues to sink, and the floors of the great cathedral and other centuries-old buildings have been rebuilt, layer by layer, to save the sinking structures from the landfill that continues to threaten their stability.

As we walked through that cathedral and through the ruins of Tenochitlan, I felt dizzy by the angled walkways, where everything slopes this way or that, and it is difficult to figure out which way is level, what is historical fiction, what is reality, and who created the narrative.