6. Description of Tenochtitlan by Conquistador Hernan Cortés; 1520 (Hernan Cortes’
Second Letter to Charles V of Spain, Letters from Mexico translated by Anthony Pagden , 1986)
This great city of Temixtitlan [Mexico] is situated in this salt lake, and from the main land to the denser parts
of it, by whichever route one chooses to enter, the distance is two leagues. There are four avenues or
entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is
as large as Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of the principal ones, are very wide and straight; some of
these, and all the inferior ones, are half land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. All the streets at
intervals have openings, through which the water flows, crossing from one street to another; and at these
openings, some of which are very wide, there are also very wide bridges, composed of large pieces of timber,
of great strength and well put together; on many of these bridges ten horses can go abreast. Foreseeing that if
the inhabitants of the city should prove treacherous, they would possess great advantages from the manner in
which the city is constructed, since by removing the bridges at the entrances, and abandoning the place, they
could leave us to perish by famine without our being able to reach the main land, as soon as I had entered it, I
made great haste to build four brigatines, which were soon finished, and were large enough to take ashore
three hundred men and the horses, whenever it should become necessary. This city has many public squares,
in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large
as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty
thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world
affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver,
lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers.
This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses, for their idols, very handsome edifices, which
are situated in the different districts and the suburbs; in the principal ones religious persons of each particular
sect are constantly residing, for whose use, besides the houses containing the idols, there are other
convenient habitations. All these persons dress in black, and never cut or comb their hair from the time they
enter the priesthood until they leave it; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and
respectable citizens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress from the age of seven or eight years
until they are taken out to be married; which occurs more frequently with the first-born who inherit estates
than with the others. The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the
religious houses. They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some seasons of the year than
others. Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural
details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room
enough for a town of five hundred families. Around the interior of the enclosure there are handsome edifices,
containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. There are
fully forty towers, which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its main body,
and is higher than the tower of the principal tower of the church at Seville. The stone and wood of which
they are constructed are so well wrought in every part, that nothing could be better done, for the interior of
the chapels containing the idols consists of curious imagery, wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and
wood-work carved in relief, and painted with figures of monsters and other objects. All these towers are the
burial places of the nobles, and every chapel in them is dedicated to a particular idol, to which they pay their
devotions.
7. Description of Tenochtitlan by Conquistador Bernal Diaz: 1519-1540 (The Memoirs of the
Conquistador Bernal Diaz de Castillo; J. Hatchet and Sons, London, 1867)
The moment we arrived in this immense market of the city, we were perfectly astonished at the vast numbers
of people, the profusion of merchandise, which was there exposed for sale, and at the good police and order
that reigned throughout.... Every species of merchandise had a separate spot for its sale. We first of all visited
those divisions of the market appropriated for the sale of gold and silver wares. Of jewels, of cloths
interwoven with feathers, and of other manufactured goods; beside slaves of both sexes. This slave market
was upon as great a scale as the Portuguese market for negro slaves at Guinea. To prevent these from
running away, they were fastened with halters about their neck, though some were allowed to walk at large.
Next to these came the dealers in coarser wares — cotton, twisted, thread, and cacao. In short, every species
of goods which New Spain produces were here to be found. ... If it had to enumerate everything single, I
should not so easily get to the end. And yet I have not mentioned the paper, which in this country is called
amatl; the tubes filled with liquid amber and tobacco, the various sweet-scented salves, and similar things;
nor the various seeds which were exposed for sale in the porticoes of this market, nor the medicinal herbs.
In this market-place there were also courts of justice, to which three judges an several constables were
appointed, who inspected the goods exposed for sale. I had almost forgotten to mention the salt, and those
who made the flint knives; also the fish, and a species of bread made of a kind of mud or slime collected fro
the surface of this lake and eaten in that form, and has a similar taste to our cheese. Further, instruments of
brass, copper, and tin; cups, and painted pitches of wood; indeed I wish I had completed the enumeration of
all this profusion of merchandise. The variety was so great that it would occupy more space than I can well
spare to note them down in. Besides which the market was so crowded with people, and the thronging so
excessive in the porticoes, that it was quite impossible to see all in one day , ...
... Before we mounted the steps of the great temple, Motecusuma, who was sacrificing on the top to his idols,
sent six papas and two of his principal officers to conduct Cortes up the steps. There were 114 steps to the
summit ... Indeed, this infernal temple, from its great height, commanded a view of the whole surrounding
neighbourhood. From this place we could likewise see the three causeways which led into Mexico --... We
also observed the aqueduct which ran from Chapultepec, and provided the whole town with sweet water. We
could also distinctly see the bridges across the openings, by which these causeways were intersected, and
through which the waters of the lake ebbed and, flowed. The lake itself was crowded with canoes, which
were bringing provisions, manufacturers, and other merchandise to the city. From here we also discovered
that the only communication to the houses in this city, and of all the other towns built in the lade, was by
means of drawbridges or canoes. In all these towns the beautiful white plastered temples rose above the
smaller ones, like so many towers and castles in our Spanish towns, and this, it may be imagined, was a
splendid sight....
8. Description of Tenochtitlan based on the reminiscences of aged Indian Native; 1555
(Codex Florentino; Fray Bernadino de Sahagun, by Enrique Florescano. Relaciones 91, verano 2002)
At the time of the Conquest, the area of the island on which the city stood had been increased by means of
fills, until it comprised a more or less regular square measuring about two miles on each side. It was joined
on the north to the island of Tlatelolco, originally an independent city, but annexed by the Aztecs in 147 3.
Tlatelolco was connected with the mainland by a causeway that ran to the sanctuary of the mother-goddess
Tonantzin on the northern shore of the lake. At the present day the site of her temple is occupied by the
Basilica of Tepeyac, dedicated to Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.
To the south of Tenochtitlan, another causeway-the one by which the Spaniards entered-joined the mainland
at Iztapalapa. The eastern edge of the city bordered the wide expanse of the lake, and only during the clearest
weather was it possible to see the city of Tezcoco, home of the famous poet-king Nezahualcoyotl, on the
opposite shore. Finally, on the west, another causeway joined the city with the allied kingdom of Tlacopan or
Tacuba; it was along this causeway that the Spaniards fled on the disastrous Night of Sorrows.
Tenochtitlan was divided into four great sections. To the northwest stood Cuepopan, "the place where
flowers bloom," which now forms the barrio or sector known as Santa Maria la Redonda; to the southwest,
Moyotlan, "the place of the gnats," later dedicated by the Spanish missionaries to the honor of St. John the
Baptist; to the southeast, Teopan, "the place of the gods," which included the precinct of the main temple and
which was known in colonial times by the name of San Pablo; and to the northeast, Atzacoalco, "in the house
of the herons," which became the site where the missionaries built the church of San Sebastian.
The two most important places in the capital were the sacred precinct of the main temple, with its related
temples, schools and other structures (in all, it contained seventy-eight buildings), and the huge plaza in
Tlatelolco that served as the principal market place, offering an astonishing variety of products from far and
near. The walled precinct of the main temple formed a great square measuring approximately five hundred
yards on each side. Today nothing is left of the temple except a few remains that can be seen near the eastern
walls of the Cathedral of Mexico. A model of the precinct has recently been installed there.
The palace of Motecuhzoma, facing a broad plaza, stood on the site now occupied by the National Palace of
Mexico. And in addition to these and other structures, there was a large number of lesser temples and stone
and mortar buildings reserved as living quarters for the nobles, merchants, artists and other persons. The
streets of Tenochtitlan were comparatively narrow, many of them with canals through which canoes from the
lakeshore could reach the center of the city. The capital boasted many other attractions, and the Spaniards
were particularly impressed by the botanical and zoological gardens, as nothing of the kind existed at that
time in their native land.