aztec dog
...having established an elaborate and extensive empire at the time of the Spanish conquest led by Hernan Cortes in the early 16th century. According to their own legends, they originated from a place called Aztlan, somewhere in north or northwest Mexico. At that time the Aztecs (who also referred to as the Mexica or Tenochca) were a small, nomadic, Nahuatl-speaking tribal peoples living on the borders of civilized Mesoamerica. Sometime in the 12th century they embarked on a period of wandering and in the 13th century settled in the central basin of México. The Aztecs finally found refuge on small islands in Lake Texcoco where, in 1325, they founded the town of Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City). The Aztecs remain the most extensively documented of all Amerindian civilizations during the 16th century. Spanish friars, soldiers, historians and scholars left invaluable records of Aztec life. These sources portray the formation and flourishing of ...