Of astounding beauty and impressive scale, its towering pyramids were painted in bright red and blue, and its palaces in dazzling white. Colorful, busy markets with a bewildering array of foods and luxuries impressed native visitors and conquering Spaniards alike.
Most of the construction in Tenochtitlan took place during the reigns of four Aztec kings beginning in the s. Built largely upon land reclaimed from Lake Texcoco, the city was laid out on a grid, inspired by the still visible ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacan of a thousand years earlier.
Its network of streets and canals teemed with canoes that transported people and goods within the city and across the lake to towns on the shore, to which it was linked by three raised causeways. Two aqueducts supplied fresh water. At the heart of Tenochtitlan was the Sacred Precinct, the religious and ceremonial center not just of the city, but of the empire as well. Surrounded by a masonry wall of serpents, this enclave of about by yards could hold more than 8, people within its precincts.
The temples of the most important Aztec gods were here. He then thrust his hand into the cavity which he had opened to rip out the still beating heart.
This he held high as an offering to the sun The king may have been hoping that the gifts would appease the Spanish and make them go away, but it had the opposite effect. Cortes then repaid the ruler by taking him prisoner and trying to rule the city in his name.
Smith notes that this force was made up of Spaniards and 70, native troops who had allied themselves with the Spanish. Making matters worse is that the inhabitants of the city had recently been decimated by a smallpox plague to which they had no immunity. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on the beds like corpses The city was theirs in August Broken spears lie in the roads; we have torn our hair in grief.
The houses are roofless now, and their walls are red with blood. We have pounded our hands in despair against the adobe walls, for our inheritance, our city, is lost and dead. The shields of our warriors were its defense, but they could not save it. Wood and coals are seen in abundance, and braziers of earthenware for burning coals; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for seats, and for balls and bedrooms.
There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, sorrel, artichokes, and golden thistle; fruits also of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as the sugar-cane; honey is also extracted from the plant called maguey, which is superior to sweet or new wine; from the same plant they extract sugar and wine, which they also sell.
Different kinds of cotton thread of all colors in skeins are exposed for sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly. Every kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and this is the best order is preserved. They sell every thing by number or measure; at least so far we have not observed them to sell any thing by weight.
There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other persons who go constantly about among the people observing what is sold, and the measures used in selling; and they have been seen to break measures that were not true.
Corey Prize Raymond J. Cunningham Prize John H. Klein Prize Waldo G. Marraro Prize George L. Mosse Prize John E. Palmegiano Prize James A. Schmitt Grant J.
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