Tenochtitlan: The Lost City Beneath Mexico City

If you walk across Mexico City's main square today, you are walking on the bottom of a lake. 500 years ago, Tenochtitlan rose from the middle of Lake Texcoco: a city of canals, floating gardens and causeways, larger than almost any city in Europe at the time. In this episode, we explore how the Mexica built it on the worst land in the valley, what the Spaniards saw when they arrived in 1519, how the city fell in 1521, and why draining the lake still shapes Mexico City today. CHAPTERS 0:00 Mexico City sits on a lake 0:35 The newcomers and the worst land in the valley 2:12 A city built against the water 4:30 What the Spaniards saw 6:02 The fall and the vanishing lake 7:59 Tenochtitlan today Visuals in this video were created with AI tools. Scripts are researched and written by hand. Next episode: why Mexico City is sinking. #Tenochtitlan #MexicanHistory #Aztecs