BBC World Histories - 08.2019 - 09.2019

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Tenochtitlán Timbuktu

58

A map of Tenochtitlán,

published in 1524, three

years after the forces of

Spanish Conquistador Hernán

Cortés razed the Aztec capital

The city break seems like a

specifically modern phenom-

enon: an artefact of low-cost

flights combined with growing

leisure time and disposable

income (in some communities,

at least). Yet cities have always

attracted travellers, albeit for

very different reasons. Work-

ers, pilgrims, soldiers, traders,

scholars, artists, diplomats,

explorers – all have journeyed

to cities across millennia, and

all have left accounts of their

visits. The journals and letters

they wrote recount not just the

activities that formed the pur-

pose for their visits but also all

kinds of other details.

Many reports are, by their

nature, highly subjective.

Some sycophantically praise

rulers or clerics; conversely,

some writers denigrate or cen-

sure indigenous societies and

their leaders to justify con-

quest or to aggrandise their

own homes.

All these insights, however

personal in nature and limited

by each writer’s interests and

experiences, provide colourful,

nuanced eyewitness histo-

ries of these cities’ ups and

downs through the ages. They

paint vivid pictures of high

society – of palaces and thea-

tres, wealthy merchants and

respected academics – as well

as the nitty gritty of every-

day life for the masses. They

lead us into bustling markets

and venerated temples, along

hectic quaysides and through

red light districts, providing

revealing insights into diverse

civilisations. These snapshots,

based on first-person accounts,

bring to life six major cities at

key moments in their past.

Tenochtitlán

Early 16th century

Bustling, garden-lined island

capital of the Aztec empire

The Aztec city of Tenochtitlán was built

on an island in Lake Texcoco, accessed

over a system of long, straight causeways

and bridges flanked with floating

gardens. The island, home to perhaps

250,000 people, was criss-crossed with

wide streets and canals, and fresh water

was supplied via two aqueducts.

In 1519, when Hernán Cortés and

his band of Conquistadors first set eyes

on the Aztec capital, his soldiers were

so awed that they thought that they

were dreaming, according to Cortés’

companion Bernal Díaz. With no

wheeled vehicles or pack animals in

the city, its streets were crowded with

porters, while canoes carried all manner

of cargo across the lake. The city was

symmetrical and carefully planned: a

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