Fascinating on Nostr: Tenochtitlan was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the XV century and was ...

Tenochtitlan was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the XV century and was located in what is now the historic center of Mexico City.

The city was built on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico and, at its peak, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas.

Although there are not precise numbers, the city's population has been estimated at between 200,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, placing Tenochtitlan among the largest cities in the world at that time.

Compared to the cities of Europe, only Paris, Venice and Constantinople might have rivaled it. It was five times the size of the London of Henry VIII.

Lake Texcoco was artificially drained in the following centuries to solve the flooding problems of Mexico City.