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Article: Tenochtitlan.(ancient city of Aztecs)
- Article from:
- Calliope
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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According to Aztec histories, the Mexica, the people who built the city of Tenochtitlan, entered the Basin of Mexico in the mid-1200s. After several unsuccessful attempts to establish a permanent settlement, their patron deity, Huitzilopochtli, appeared in a vision to one of their priests to tell them that they would find their homeland where an eagle was perched on a prickly pear cactus. They saw such an eagle on an island in western Lake Texcoco, probably in 1325. So they named the site Tenochtitlan, "Place of the Fruit of the Prickly Pear Cactus."
Although Tenochtitlan lacked such important resources as wood and building stone, its location made transportation ...