Location from civilization by Firaxis Games / 2K
The island capital of the Aztec Empire, built in the middle of Lake Texcoco, a city of causeways and pyramids and the beating heart of Mesoamerican civilization.
Tenochtitlan is one of the great engineering achievements of the pre-Columbian world. Built on a swampy island and expanded by generations of Aztec engineers, it is home to hundreds of thousands of people, sustained by the chinampas — floating gardens — that ring the island and produce enormous quantities of food. At the city's center, the Templo Mayor rises in stepped tiers toward the sky. Two shrines crown its summit: one for Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun and war, and one for Tlaloc, god of rain and agriculture. Montezuma can see both from his palace window.
An island city connected to the mainland by three great causeways, its skyline dominated by the twin pyramids of the Templo Mayor. The canals between the chinampa garden plots are full of canoes. The air smells of copal incense and lake water and fresh flowers, which are traded in enormous quantities at the great market of Tlatelolco.
Also known as: Tenochtitlan, The City of the Eagle and Cactus, Mexico City (later)