These pictures are fantastic, and I couldn't agree more about the museo antropología. I've been there three times and I'd love to go back. There were two things in particular that blew my mind the first time I visited:
There's an exhibit about the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, how it was built on top of a lake, the wild history of things that happened there, etc. It was only when I was almost done with the exhibit I realized [edit] Tenochtitlan is Mexico City, the place I had been for the past few days. It was hard to reconcile.
My main takeaway about the Aztecs from history class was that they were the victims of the Spanish conquistadores. That's true, but they have a fascinating backstory where they were the conquerors of other groups and did a variety of amazing and terrible things. I had a one-dimensional view of the region, and I had never even heard of some of the people that they had conquered.
I wonder if this is just a typo s/Teotihuacan/Tenochtitlan ?
Nowadays a significant portion of the lake Texcoco is absorbed in modern Mexico City.
This includes not only Tenochtitlan but also other cities in the Aztec empire like Tlacopan and Azcapozalco which are boroughs in Mexico City. But not all of them!
Teotihuacan and Texcoco, while nearby and connected in the same wider urban area are not part of Mexico City
> Teotihuacan and Texcoco, while nearby and connected in the same wider urban area are not part of Mexico City
Also worth mention: Teotihuacan was already an abandoned ruin almost 800 years before the Mexica (Aztecs) themselves rose to power.
And yet the name of the city is the one the Nahuatl-speaking Mexica gave it since the language and writing of the teotihuacanos remain almost completely unknown to us (and were unknown to the Mexica for that matter as well, although the Maya likely had some cultural memory of teotihuacan having existed as a society during both its period of dominance as well as that of the Mexica.
> where they were the conquerors of other groups and did a variety of amazing and terrible things
The level of ritualized cruelty that pre-Columbian Mexicans were inflicting on each other is really something. Political narratives in both directions clouds the issue, but I challenge anyone leaving a Mexican museum to not feel a bit squeamish.
There's an exhibit about the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, how it was built on top of a lake, the wild history of things that happened there, etc. It was only when I was almost done with the exhibit I realized [edit] Tenochtitlan is Mexico City, the place I had been for the past few days. It was hard to reconcile.
My main takeaway about the Aztecs from history class was that they were the victims of the Spanish conquistadores. That's true, but they have a fascinating backstory where they were the conquerors of other groups and did a variety of amazing and terrible things. I had a one-dimensional view of the region, and I had never even heard of some of the people that they had conquered.