Book Excerpt: Tenochtitlan is testament to the Aztecs’ urban development skills

Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes enters Tenochtitlan and is received by Aztec Emperor Moctezuma. Illustration: iStock

The city of Tenochtitlan rose to become the leading member within the alliance. In the fifteenth century, several hundred thousand inhabitants lived on an area of about eight and a half square miles, which was divided into large districts: Moyotlan in the southwest, Teopan in the southeast, Atzaqualco in the northeast, and Cuepopan in the northwest, and the special district Tlatelolco in the north. This made Tenochtitlan one of the ten largest cities in the world at that time. Based on the calculation of the possible population density in relation to the island’s available surface area, which was severely restricted by the numerous uninhabited and sparsely populated ritual districts, it is estimated that the inhabitants of the entire Valley of Mexico numbered between one and two and a half million.

Around 1500, the Valley of Mexico experienced a long period of abundant moisture. As a result, the population growth, as recent archaeological research has shown, was quite strong. At the end of the fifteenth century, the population density was likely higher than at any other time in Mesoamerican history, and in any case much higher than on the Iberian Peninsula. This circumstance, however, gave rise to conflicts and wars. Periods of peace were based on a fragile equilibrium prone to disruption. The balance was finally destroyed by the Spaniards.

Dams, aqueducts, and irrigation systems bear witness to the urban development skills of the Mexica. A five-mile-long water pipeline provided the town of Tenochtitlan, whose location on an island in a brackish lake meant that drinking water wasn’t easily accessible. In order to bring fresh water to the urban area, the inhabitants had to clear land from the lake, create artificial islands, and connect them with bridges and canals. Under the direction of the tlatoani of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl, the Mexica built in the middle of the fifteenth century the large dam between Itztapalapa and Atzacoalco to protect the city from floods. In addition, shipping canals that could be closed for defensive purposes were constructed. In the south of the lake system, the Chalco and Xochimilco Lakes provided fresh water. Here, too, there was a risk of flooding, which the dam road from Itztapalapa to Coyoacán was intended to alleviate.

However, as archaeologist Michael E Smith has pointed out, Tenochtitlan represented an exception in the urban landscape. Much more widespread were the smaller towns that had been established in the early days of the Mexica’s arrival in the region. From the preceding cultures, the Mexica adopted certain architectural norms for public spaces, such as stone pyramids, ball playgrounds, altars, and ceremonial sites. Atop the pyramids were one or more temples dedicated to different deities and containing sculptures and paintings. The altars also served various purposes, ranging from the performance of fertility rites to the display of skulls of the sacrificed to the worship of various gods. In addition, each city had its own ruler’s palace, where the tlatoani lived with his family. Architecturally, these buildings followed the same pattern despite displaying many differences in their details. They had a large inner courtyard with an altar and adjoining chambers for the ruling family and members of the government. Other public buildings included the schools for the children of the nobility (calmecac) and for those of common freemen (telpochcalli). The leading warriors gathered in so-called eagle houses.

On the oval island where Tenochtitlan was located, the Great Temple, with its demarcated district, formed the city center. It had been repeatedly extended and enlarged under the different tlatoque (rulers; plural of tlatoani). When Cortés first encountered it, he was astonished:

. . . among the temples there is one which is the main temple and for whose size and characteristics there are no words. Because it is so large that one could very well build a place for five hundred inhabitants on its plot, which is completely surrounded by a high wall . . . There are easily forty towers there, all of which are so high that in the case of the largest one must climb fifty steps to even reach the base. The main temple is taller than the cathedral of Seville. They are so well-built of both stone and wood that it could not be improved upon anywhere . . .

On the west side, a double staircase led up to the two sanctuaries at the top of the pyramid, which was dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc in the west and Huitzilopochtli in the south. In front of it, there was an altar on which human sacrifices were offered. There were more than seventy ritual structures in the temple district, including a skull rack (tzompantli), a ball playground, and a round temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl. There was also a place for statues of the gods of subjugated peoples.

The splendor of the palaces, with their gardens, libraries, and even a zoo impressed the Spanish conquerors as much as the general cleanliness of the streets, which according to Cervantes de Salazar were cleaned daily by a thousand men. The stench typical of European cities was less pronounced in Tenochtitlan, with the exception of the temple district, where the smells of human sacrifice took the Europeans’ breath away. To suppress this odor, nobles carried fragrant flowers with them. Overall, the hygienic conditions contrasted positively with those of the European cities they knew, not least because the Mexica attached great importance to physical hygiene. If the Europeans had understood the symbolic language of the urban landscape, they would have noticed that it just as consciously made references to the idealized Tula as they did themselves in their own cities to Rome or Jerusalem.

Beginning in the second half of the fifteenth century, the wealth of Mexica grew by leaps and bounds. Evidence of this can be seen in the public buildings and the impressive parklike garden landscapes, which became increasingly monumental. The Chapultepec complex, also designed by Nezahualcoyotl, was a precursor of the botanical gardens of modern times. The visible and external center of power of each city-state was the palace, the tecpan. Since Tenochtitlan was the capital of the empire, the tecpan of Moctezuma, which was rebuilt only in 1502, after a disastrous flood, outshone all others in size and splendor. According to López de Gómara, it had three courtyards, each with a graceful fountain, and more than one hundred rooms, all with private bathrooms. The walls—artistically painted—were made of alabaster, jasper, and a crystallized rock called porphyry, and the floors were covered with furs, cotton, and feather carpets. The ground floor was used by administrative officials and craftsmen of all kinds, while the rulers lived above. At night, the fires from large coal pits illuminated the palace, as candles were still unknown.

The great majority of the city’s inhabitants did not live in palaces, but in the simple dwellings of the common people, which were built of adobe bricks. In Tenochtitlan and the Valley of Mexico, these dwellings often had several rooms, while in the more remote provinces they usually consisted of a single room. In the capital, the single-story houses with their flat roofs were placed around a courtyard, where the inhabitants shared a communal kitchen, water and corn containers, and a steam bath. Within the cities, the common people lived in clearly defined settlement associations or districts called calpultin (sing. calpulli). In Tenochtitlan, more than one hundred calpultin were spread out among city’s four districts. Together the inhabitants farmed the land that belonged to a nobleman. A calpulli usually had a school and a market. The likeness of the respective protective deity was housed in its own temple. The inhabitants of different calpultin came together at the markets, for religious feasts, and for community work. Thus, everyone had to alternate between either providing certain services to the tlatoani or assigning workers to the major infrastructure projects.

The cities fulfilled political, religious, and economic functions. First of all, they were the center of an altepetl (pl. altepeme), a political unit or city-state whose seat of power was the residence of the tlatoani. The centers of the altepetl were distinguished from other city states by the existence of a legitimate dynasty, domination over the land and its people, a foundation myth, and their own protective deity. The rulers legitimized their power through supernatural forces. Religious rituals, which were performed in the city at sacred sites, were directed at the entire altepetl, and the participants came from all across the empire. The balance of power of the city-states in the Valley of Mexico was anything but stable. On the contrary, it was continuously shaken by rivalries and wars. When one was conquered by another, it resulted in a redistribution of tributes and land ownership.

Each city was the heart of its region’s economic life. Markets were held weekly in most, and in Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, daily. Varieties of craft production differed from town to town. While some specialized in obsidian processing or ceramics, others remained in the production of textiles from agave fibers.

From Conquistadors and Aztecs by Stefan Rinke. Copyright © 2023 by Stefan Rinke and published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.