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History–Tours
15191519 – 13 August 1521 · Mexico City

Fall of Tenochtitlan

Excavated Aztec Templo Mayor ruins in central Mexico City
Photo: Mike Peel. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hernán Cortés and a few hundred Spaniards, allied with tens of thousands of Tlaxcalans and other enemies of the Aztecs, besieged Tenochtitlan for about three months in 1521; smallpox had already killed many of its people. The city fell in August and Mexico City was built on its ruins, beginning three centuries of Spanish rule. The Aztec great temple was uncovered from 1978.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Templo MayorExcavated layers of the Aztec twin-temple pyramid.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Plaza de las Tres Culturas, TlatelolcoAztec ruins, colonial church and modern towers at the site of the last stand.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: ZócaloMain square laid over the Aztec ceremonial centre.Map ↗

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