Tenochtitlan

Thomas Kole recently released several 3-D reconstructions of Tenochtitlan and the lake on which it was situated.  The remarkable city, the home of the Mexica/Aztecs, which left Cortez and his conquistadors in awe, had been constructed over the two centuries prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1519.  I've written about the city and its conquest before, see Ten Years After: 1519-29.  Kole's reconstruction captures the scale of the city and the terraforming required for its development and is well worth a look.  A couple of screen shots are below.  Because the lake was filled in after the fall of the Mexica it is difficult without such visual aids to capture what once existed.  That fill is unstable and is why today's Mexico City is so susceptible to earthquake damage.