Tenochtitlan facts for kids
Tenochtitlan was the amazing capital city of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs built this city around 1325. It was built right on a large lake called Lake Texcoco.
As the Aztec Empire grew, so did Tenochtitlan. By the early 1500s, over 200,000 people lived there. This made Tenochtitlan the biggest city in the Americas before Christopher Columbus arrived.
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What Was Tenochtitlan Like?
Tenochtitlan was the heart of the Aztec government and religion. It was also a very busy trading center. When the Spanish arrived in 1519, they estimated that 60,000 people visited the market every day.
People bought and sold many things there. This included prisoners of war from states the Aztecs had taken over. The whole city was decorated with beautiful art, amazing buildings, and stone sculptures.
The Great Temple: A Sacred Place
The city had a huge pyramid called the Templo Mayor (Great Temple). At the top of this temple, there were two small rooms. Here, the Aztecs sacrificed people to two of their most important gods.
One god was Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun. The other was Tlaloc, the rain god. The Aztecs believed they had to give their gods blood. If they did not, the gods would die, causing the end of the world.
How Did Tenochtitlan Get Food and Water?
The Aztecs were very clever engineers. They built canals all over the city. These canals brought water to Aztec crops. This allowed them to grow much more food than usual.
The Aztecs also built levees to protect the city from flooding. They created reservoirs to store fresh water.
Farming on the Lake
The Aztecs also built chinampas. These were small, rectangular gardens that floated on the lake beds. Chinampas helped them grow even more food. This extra food fed the thousands of people living around Tenochtitlan.
They also built waterways and dams. These structures helped them get fresh water. They also blocked out the salty brackish water from the lake.
The Fall of Tenochtitlan
In 1519, Spanish explorers called conquistadores arrived. They were led by Hernán Cortés. Cortes was very impressed by Tenochtitlan. However, he still decided to attack it.
The Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies invaded Tenochtitlan. The city fell in 1521 after a long fight. Today, Mexico City is built right over the ruins of Tenochtitlan.
Photo gallery
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Drawing of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco
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Model of the Aztec "Great Temple"
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"Water tunnel" coming from the Aztec Great Temple
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Model of what Tenochtitlan may have looked like
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Spanish painting of a market in Tenochtitlan
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The Spanish invade Tenochtitlan
Related pages
Images for kids
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The Tlatelolco Marketplace as depicted at The Field Museum, Chicago
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National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Reconstruction of an Aztec market in Tenochtitlan.
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A Mexico City monument commemorating the foundation of Tenochtitlan
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Mexica pyramid of Ehecatl in the Metro Pino Suárez station, Mexico City Subway.
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The ruins of the Templo Mayor
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A picture of Tenochtitlan and a model of the Templo Mayor at the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City
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Fundación de México (The foundation of Mexico) – Tenochtitlán by Roberto Cueva del Río
See also
In Spanish: México-Tenochtitlan para niños
