reclaiming swampland both for construction and for cultivation. Their reclaimed chinampas, or floating gardens, produced at least two harvests a year, their fertility boosted by regular treatments with human manure collected in the city. Each day a flotilla of perhaps fifty thousand canoes – each cut from a single tree trunk – swarmed to and from the great metropolis carrying produce from these hydroponic gardens and from further afield, the life blood of the city. But as well as food, clean water was essential, as it is for any city. Skilfully engineered aqueducts brought fresh water in from the surrounding mountains. Canoes then dispensed the water to individual residences. The city itself was divided into four by grand avenues which converged on a central walled complex of palaces and temples. Out of this soared the stepped pyramid of the Great Temple, sixty metres high, on which were two shrines: to Tlaloc, the rain god, and to Huitzilopoctli, the fearsome god of war who was the Mexica’s patron deity. It was to this god, identified with the sun, that the Aztecs sacrificed human beings, typically prisoners of war. Cortés estimated that between three and four thousand victims a year were sacrificed. Díaz described how the priests ‘strike open the wretched Indian’s chest with flint knives and hastily tear out the palpitating heart which, with the blood, they present to the idols’.14 To the Mexica, their city was ‘the foundation of heaven’, literally the political and religious centre of the universe.15 It was their responsibility to offer ‘precious water’, or blood, as nourishment to the deities so that life could continue in this harsh world.16 Beyond the central complex were many other smaller temples as well as markets, private residences and Montezuma’s fabulous palace with its water gardens, aviaries and menageries. Some of the private residences were two storeys high and had roof gardens. In these walled compounds two extended families lived, each home having access to the street and the canal, a fact that helped make this a socially mobile society: ‘Even commoners could achieve high rank through military service or the acquisition of great personal wealth.’17 The wealth of a family was apparent from the external decoration and ornamentation of their homes. The craftsmanship was superb. ‘It could not be bettered anywhere,’ said one Spanish eyewitness.18 The Spaniards were astonished by Tenochtitlán. It was a remarkable creation, a wonder of the world at that time, in many respects excelling the cities of Europe, a fact grudgingly acknowledged by Cortés: ‘these people live almost like those of Spain, and in as much
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