The city of Tenochtitlan was one of the largest and most powerful cities of Mesoamerica. It was the Aztec capital city, and is thought of to be the last major ancient city. It only lasted around 200 years, but it was described as "magnificent" by the outsiders who saw it.
The god of war, Huitzilopochtli, appeared in an Aztec leaders dream one night. He told them to find the cactus with the bird perched on top. Finally, after traveling around, they saw this vision. This was where they were to build the great city, Tenochtitlan. This place was located by the small lake in the Valley of Mexico named Lake Texcoco. The city got its name from a combination of three Aztec words. Tetl means stone, nochtli means nopal, and tlan means place. Tenochtitlan translates to "The place of stone and nopal."
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