Capital of the [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Aztec|Aztec Empire]], first built around 1300 on an island in [Lake Texcoco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Texcoco) in the Valley of Mexico, connected to the mainland by several causeways. At its peak, Tenochtitlán was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas and possibly in the world. Its population was over 200,000 but it was reported (by Spanish conquistadors) to be remarkably well-ordered and clean, relative to what they had seen in Europe. [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Bernal Díaz del Castillo]] said of the city, When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (...) on account of the great towers and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (...) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.  The builders of the city also built a levee in the lake to protect the fresher, springfed waters of the western part of the lake from the more brackish waters to the east. Even so, the Aztecs did not drink this water but brought fresh water from the hills of [Chapultepec](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapultepec) via two aqueducts. Most of the population bathed twice daily, but [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Moctezuma]] was said to bathe four times. Prosperous residents had steam baths in their homes. The city was fed by the produce of [[Chinampas]] that extended into the lake on all sides of the island, reclaiming land and providing crop yields five times better than any achieved in Europe or Asia at the time. After [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Hernán Cortés]] and his [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Tlaxcalan]] allies defeated the Aztecs in 1521, the city was destroyed and Mexico City built on the ruins.