Tenochtitlan
The Mexica build a city of a quarter of a million people on an island in a lake.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 175 years
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Founded in 1325 on a marshy island, Tenochtitlan grows into one of the largest cities in the world, fed by chinampas — raised beds built up from lake mud that produce several harvests a year — and supplied by causeways and an aqueduct of fresh water. The Triple Alliance formed in 1428 extracts tribute across central Mexico. Spanish soldiers who saw it in 1519 compared it to Venice and said some of them thought they were dreaming.