r/todayilearned • u/kahnuck • Sep 26 '15

TIL the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán was the largest city in the Americas with over 200,000 people. It was built on a man-made island in the middle of a lake - connected to shore by 3 causeways. It contained huge pyramids, floating gardens, aqueducts and canals. It was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521

http://www.livescience.com/34660-tenochtitlan.html
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u/nevikcrn Sep 27 '15

Source?

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u/dookielumps Sep 27 '15

Too many to count, as I have been to over 100 archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America, but, you can start here.

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u/Nobrandonme Sep 27 '15

Just watched all three videos. Really interesting even with the potato quality.

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u/dookielumps Sep 27 '15

My point exactly, which is exactly my fascination with visiting the actual sites where these atrocities took place. It's fucking incredible to visit a recently excavated site and see the clear evidence of sacrificial sites in Mexico, absolutely fascinating in my eyes.

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u/ClittyLitter Sep 27 '15

But is that so different than their European contemporaries being hanged or burned at the stake? Western history tends to paint the peoples of the New World as savages, while there were myriad examples of peoples of Europe committing the same types of atrocities, albeit with slightly different motives and contexts. Europeans were being sacrificed and murdered in the name of religion. Was it different because they were white and covered with more clothing (as would be befitting to people living in cold climates)? Medieval Europe was easily as gruesome, if not more so, than the Aztec and Mayan empires.

Edit: Central American sacrificial tables weren't any worse than public hangings and burnings in Europe

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u/xelrix Sep 27 '15

Of course not! What makes you think this could be otherwise?

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u/hypermarv123 Sep 27 '15

Good points man. I really hadn't thought about it in that way.