Founding of Tenochtitlan

According to Mexica tradition, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 CE when wandering Mexica migrants, following a prophecy to build their home where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent, settled on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The site had little inherent value, surrounded by shallow lake water controlled by rival city-states, but the Mexica adapted it with chinampas, artificial raised fields built up from lake mud, and a network of canals and causeways connecting the island to the mainland. Over the following two centuries Tenochtitlan grew into the capital of the Aztec Empire and, by the early sixteenth century, one of the largest cities in the world, with an estimated population of over 200,000 people. It fell to the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his indigenous allies after a prolonged siege in 1521, and the ruins of the city became the foundation of what is now Mexico City.