Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan was the great island city of the Mexica in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico, and the capital of the Aztec Empire. According to tradition it was founded in 1325 on a small island, where the Mexica saw an eagle perched on a cactus—an image still on Mexico's flag. The city was laid out on a grid of canals and causeways, with a sacred precinct at its centre containing the Templo Mayor and the palaces of the rulers. It was joined to the mainland by three causeways and supplied with fresh water by aqueducts from Chapultepec; at its height it may have housed 200,000 people, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Tenochtitlan dominated the Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan, extracting tribute from much of central Mexico. In 1519 Hernán Cortés entered the city, and after a long siege it fell in August 1521. The Spanish built Mexico City on its ruins, and the cathedral now stands beside the Templo Mayor.