California ground cuckoo- a North American bird from the cuckoo family (Cuculidae). It lives in deserts and semi-deserts in the south and southwest of the United States and in northern Mexico.
Adult ground cuckoos reach a length of 51 to 61 cm, including the tail. They have a long, slightly curved beak. The head, crest, back and long tail are dark brown with light spots. The neck and belly are also light. The extremely long legs and long tail are adaptations for a desert-running lifestyle.
Most representatives of the cuckoo suborder keep in the crowns of trees and shrubs, fly well, and this species lives on the ground. Due to the peculiar composition of the body and long legs the cuckoo moves like a chicken. On the run, she stretches her neck somewhat, slightly opens her wings and raises her crest. Only when necessary, the bird takes off into the trees or flies over short distances.The California ground cuckoo can reach speeds of up to 42 km/h. The special arrangement of the toes also helps her in this, since both outer toes are located back, and both inner ones are forward. She flies, however, because of her short wings very poorly and can stay in the air for only a few seconds.
The California ground cuckoo has evolved an unusual, energy-saving way to spend cold nights in the desert. At this time of day, her body temperature drops and she falls into a kind of immobile hibernation. On her back there are dark patches of skin that are not covered with feathers. In the morning, she spreads her feathers and exposes these areas of the skin to the sun, due to which the body temperature quickly returns to normal levels.
This bird spends most of its time on the ground and preys on snakes, lizards, insects, rodents and small birds. She is fast enough to kill even small vipers, which she grabs by the tail with her beak and beats her head on the ground like a whip. She swallows her prey whole. This bird got its English name Road Runner (road runner) because it used to run after mail coaches and grab small animals disturbed by their wheels.
The earthen cuckoo fearlessly appears where other inhabitants of the desert are reluctant to penetrate - into the possession of rattlesnakes, since these poisonous reptiles, especially young ones, serve as prey for birds. The cuckoo usually attacks the snake, trying to hit it with a powerful long beak in the head. At the same time, the bird constantly bounces, evading the enemy's throws. Earthen cuckoos are monogamous: a pair is formed for the period of hatching, and both parents incubate the clutch and feed the cuckoos. Birds build a nest from twigs and dry grass in bushes or thickets of cacti. There are 3-9 white eggs in a clutch. Cuckoo chicks are fed exclusively with reptiles.death valley
Death Valley got its name from the settlers who crossed it in 1849, trying to reach the gold mines of California by the shortest route. The guidebook briefly reports that "some stayed in it forever." The dead were poorly prepared for the passage through the desert, did not stock up on water and lost their bearings. Before his death, one of them cursed this place, calling it Death Valley. The few survivors withered the meat of the mules on the wreckage of the dismantled wagons and reached the goal. They left behind "cheerful" geographical names: Death Valley, Burial Range, Last Chance Ridge, Coffin Canyon, Dead Man's Pass, Hell's Gate, Rattlesnake Gorge, etc.
Death Valley is surrounded by mountains on all sides. This is a seismically active region, the surface of which is shifting along fault lines. Huge blocks of the earth's surface move in the process of underground earthquakes, the mountains become higher, and the valley goes lower in relation to sea level. On the other hand, erosion is constantly occurring - the destruction of mountains as a result of the influence of natural forces. Small and large stones, minerals, sand, salts and clay washed off the surface of the mountains fill the valley (now the level of these ancient layers is about 2,750 m). However, the intensity of geological processes far exceeds the force of erosion, therefore, in the next million years, the tendency of "growth" of mountains and lowering of the valley will continue.
Badwater Basin is the lowest part of Death Valley, located at 85.5 m below sea level. Sometime after the Ice Age, Death Valley was a huge lake with fresh water. The local hot and dry climate contributed to the inevitable evaporation of water. Annual short-term, but very intense rains wash tons of minerals from the surface of the mountains into the lowlands. The salts remaining after the evaporation of the water settle to the bottom, reaching the highest concentration in the lowest place, in the Pond with bad water. Here, rainwater lingers longer, forming small temporary lakes. Once upon a time, the first settlers were surprised that their dehydrated mules refused to drink water from these lakes, and they marked "bad water" on the map. So this area got its name. In fact, the water in the pool (when it is) is not poisonous, but it tastes very salty. There are also unique inhabitants here that are not found in other places: algae, aquatic insects, larvae and even a mollusk, named after the place of residence Badwater Snail.
In a vast area of the valley, located below the level of the World Ocean, and once the bottom of a prehistoric lake, one can observe the amazing behavior of salt deposits. This area is divided into two different zones, differing in texture and shape of salt crystals. In the first case, salt crystals grow upwards, forming bizarre pointed heaps and labyrinths 30-70 cm high. They form an interesting foreground with their randomness, well emphasized by the rays of the low sun in the morning and evening hours. Sharp as knives, growing crystals on a hot day emit an ominous, unlike anything crack. This section of the valley is quite difficult to navigate, but it is better not to spoil this beauty.
Nearby is the lowest terrain in the Valley Badwater Basin. Salt behaves differently here. On an absolutely flat white surface, a uniform salt net 4-6 cm high is formed. The grid consists of figures, gravitating in shape to a hexagon, and covers the bottom of the Valley with a huge cobweb, creating an absolutely unearthly landscape.
In the southern part of Death Valley is a flat, flat clay plain - the bottom of the dried-up lake Racetrack Playa - called the Valley of moving stones (Racetrack Playa). According to the very phenomenon found in this area - "self-propelled" stones.Sailing stones, also called sliding or crawling stones, are a geological phenomenon. The stones move slowly along the clay bottom of the lake, as evidenced by the long footprints left behind them. The stones move on their own without the help of living beings, but no one has ever seen or recorded the movement on camera. Similar stone movements have been noted in several other places, but in terms of the number and length of tracks, Racetrack Playa stands out from the rest.
In 1933, "Death Valley" was declared a national monument, and in 1994 it received the status national park and the territory of the park was expanded to include another 500,000 hectares of land.
The territory of the park includes the Salina Valley, most of the Panamint Valley, as well as the territories of several mountain systems. Telescope Peak rises to the west, and Dante's View to the east, from which a beautiful view of the entire valley opens up.
There are many picturesque places here, especially on the slopes adjacent to the desert plain: dormant volcano Ubehebe, Titus Canyon deep. 300 m and a length of 20 km; a small lake with very salty water, in which a small shrimp lives; in the desert there are 22 species of unique plants, 17 species of lizards and 20 species of snakes. The park has a unique landscape. This is an unusual wild beautiful nature, graceful rock formations, snow-covered Mountain peaks, burning salty plateaus, shallow canyons, hills covered with millions of delicate flowers.Coati- a mammal from the genus nosoha of the raccoon family. This mammal received its name for an elongated and very funny mobile stigma-nose.
Their head is narrow, their hair is short, their ears are round and small. On the edge of the inner side of the ears is a white rim. Nosukha is the owner of a very long tail, which is almost always in an upright position. With the help of the tail, the animal balances when moving. The characteristic color of the tail is the alternation of light yellow, brown and black rings.
The color of the nose is varied: from orange to dark brown. The muzzle is usually a uniform black or brown. On the muzzle, below and above the eyes, there are light spots. The neck is yellowish, the paws are painted black or dark brown.
the trap is elongated, the paws are strong with five fingers and non-retractable claws. With its claws, the nosuha digs the ground, getting food. The hind legs are longer than the front. The length of the body from the nose to the tip of the tail is 80-130 cm, the length of the tail itself is 32-69 cm. The height at the withers is about 20-29 cm. They weigh about 3-5 kg. Males are almost twice as large as females.
Nosoha live on average 7-8 years, but in captivity they can live up to 14 years. Live in tropical and subtropical forests South America and the southern United States. Their favorite place is dense bushes, low-lying forests, rocky terrain. Due to human intervention Lately noses prefer forest edges and clearings.
They say that nosuha used to be called simply badgers, but since real badgers moved to Mexico, the true homeland of nosoha, this species has received its individual name.
All noses, including coatis, are predators! Coatis get their food with their noses, diligently sniffing and groaning, they inflate the foliage in this way and look for termites, ants, scorpions, beetles, larvae under it. Sometimes it can also feed on land crabs, frogs, lizards, rodents. During the hunt, the coati clamps the victim with its paws and bites through its head. In difficult times of famine, nosuhi allow themselves vegetarian cuisine, they eat ripe fruits, which, as a rule, are always in abundance in the forest. Moreover, they do not make stocks, but return to the tree from time to time.
Nosoha live both in groups and alone. In groups of 5-6 individuals, sometimes their number reaches 40. In groups there are only females and young males. Adult males live alone. The reason for this is their aggressive attitude towards babies. They are expelled from the group and only return to mate.Males usually lead a solitary life and only during the mating season do they join the family groups of females with young. In the mating season, and this is usually from October to March, one male is accepted into a group of females and young. All sexually mature females living in the group mate with this male, and soon after mating, he leaves the group.
As soon as the young males are two years old, they leave the group and continue to lead a solitary lifestyle, the females remain in the group.
Nosukha brings cubs once a year. Usually there are 2-6 cubs in a litter. Newborns weigh 100-180 grams and are completely dependent on the mother, who leaves the nest for a while to find food. The eyes open at about 11 days. For several weeks, the babies remain in the nest, and then leave it with their mother and join the family group.
Lactation lasts up to four months. Young coats remain with their mother until she begins to prepare for the birth of the next offspring.
Red Lynx- the most common wild cat of the North American continent. In general appearance, this is a typical lynx, but it is almost two times smaller than an ordinary lynx and not so long-legged and broad-legged. Its body length is 60-80 cm, height at the withers is 30-35 cm, weight is 6-11 kg. You can recognize a red lynx by its white
You can meet a red lynx in dense subtropical forests or in desert places among thorny cacti, on high mountain slopes or in swampy lowlands. The presence of a person does not prevent her from appearing on the outskirts of villages or small towns. This predator chooses areas for itself where it is possible to feast on small rodents, nimble squirrels or shy rabbits and even prickly porcupines.
Although the bobcat is a good tree climber, it only climbs trees for food and shelter. It hunts at dusk, only young animals go hunting during the day.Vision and hearing are well developed. Hunts on the ground, sneaking up on prey. With its sharp claws, the lynx holds the victim and kills it with a bite to the base of the skull. In one sitting, an adult animal eats up to 1.4 kg of meat. The remaining surplus hides and returns to them the next day.For rest, the red lynx chooses a new place every day, not lingering in the old one. It can be a crack in the rocks, a cave, a hollow log, a space under a fallen tree, etc. On the ground or snow, the red lynx takes a step about 25 - 35 cm long; the size of an individual footprint is about 4.5 x 4.5 cm. While walking, they place their hind legs exactly in the tracks left by their front paws. Because of this, they never make a very loud noise from the crackling of dry twigs under their feet. Soft pads on their feet help them to calmly sneak up to the animal at close range. Bobcats are good tree climbers and can also swim across small bodies of water, but they only do so on rare occasions.
The red lynx is a territorial animal. The lynx marks the boundaries of the site and its paths with urine and feces. In addition, she leaves marks of her claws on the trees. The male knows that the female is ready to mate by the smell of her urine. A mother with cubs is very aggressive towards any animal and person that threatens her kittens.
V wild nature males and females love loneliness, meeting only during the breeding season. The only time when individuals of different sexes look for meetings is the mating season, which falls at the end of winter - the beginning of spring. The male mates with all the females that are in the same area with him. Pregnancy of the female lasts only 52 days. The cubs are born in the spring, blind and helpless. At this time, the female tolerates the male only near the den. After about a week, the babies open their eyes, but for another eight weeks they stay with their mother and feed on her milk. The mother licks their fur and warms them with her body. The female bobcat is a very caring mother. In case of danger, she takes the kittens to another shelter.
A male bobcat often occupies an area of 100 km2, border areas can be common to several males. The area of the female is half that. Within the territory of one male, 2-3 females usually live. A male red lynx, on whose territory three females with cubs often live, has to get food for 12 kittens.
Among the almost two and a half thousand species of higher plants found in the flora of the Sonoran Desert, the most widely represented are species from the family of Asteraceae, legumes, cereals, buckwheat, euphorbia, cactus and borage. A number of communities characteristic of the main habitats make up the vegetation of the Sonoran Desert.
Vegetation grows on extensive, slightly sloping alluvial fans, the main components of which are groups of creosote bush and ragweed. They also include several types of prickly pear, quinoa, acacia, fukeria, or okotilo.
On the alluvial plains below the alluvial fans, the vegetation cover mainly consists of a sparse forest of mesquite trees. Their roots, penetrating into the depths, reach the groundwater, and the roots located in the surface layer of the soil, within a radius of up to twenty meters from the trunk, can intercept precipitation. An adult mesquite tree reaches a height of eighteen meters, and can be more than a meter wide. In modern times, only the pitiful remnants of the once majestic mesquite forests, long cut down for fuel, remain. The mesquite forest is very similar to the thickets of black saxaul in the Karakum Desert. The composition of the forest, in addition to the mesquite tree, includes clematis and acacia.
By the water, along the banks of the rivers, near the water, poplars are located, to which ash and Mexican elder are mixed. Plants such as acacia, creosote bush and celtis grow in the beds of the arroyo, drying up temporary streams, as well as on the adjacent plains. In the Gran Desierto Desert, near the coast of the Gulf of California, the sandy plains are dominated by ragweed and creosote bush, and on sand dunes ephedra and tobosa, ambrosia grow.
Trees grow here only on large dry channels. In the mountains, cacti and xerophilic shrubs are mainly developed, but the cover is very rare. Saguaro is quite rare (and completely absent in California) and its distribution here is again limited to channels. Annuals (mainly winter ones) make up almost half of the flora, and in the driest areas up to 90% of the species composition: they appear in huge numbers only in wet years.
In the Arizona Uplands, northwest of the Sonoran Desert, the vegetation is especially colorful and varied. A denser vegetation cover and a variety of vegetation are due here to more precipitation than in other areas of Sonora, as well as the ruggedness of the relief, a combination of steep slopes of different exposures and hills. A kind of cactus forest, in which the main place is occupied by a giant columnar saguaro cactus, with an undersized encelium shrub located between the cacti, is formed on gravelly soils with a large amount of fine earth. Also among the vegetation there are large barrel-shaped ferocactus, ocotillo, paloverde, several species of prickly pear, acacia, celtis, creosote bush, as well as mesquite tree, in floodplains.
With a peculiar look, such trees and bushes of the Sonoran Desert as an ivory tree, an iron tree and an idriya, or buoyum, growing only in two areas of the Sonoran Desert, located in Mexico, which is part of such a region as Latin America, attract attention.
The Vizcaino area is located in the central third of the California Peninsula. Precipitation is scarce, but the air is cool, as moist sea breezes often bring fog, which weakens the aridity of the climate. Rain falls mainly in winter and averages less than 125 mm. Here in the flora there are some very unusual plants, bizarre landscapes are characteristic: fields of white granite boulders, cliffs of black lavas, etc. Interesting plants are bujamas, an elephant tree, a 30 m high cordon, a throttling ficus growing on rocks and a blue palm tree. In contrast to the main Vizcaino Desert, the Vizcaino Coastal Plain is a flat, cool, foggy desert with 0.3 m high shrubs and fields of annuals.
District Magdalena is located south of Vizcaino on the California Peninsula and resembles Vizcaino in appearance, but the flora is slightly different. Most of the meager rainfall occurs in the summer, when the Pacific breeze blows off the sea. The only notable plant on the pale Magdalena Plain is the creeping devil cactus (Stenocereus eruca), but away from the coast on the rocky slopes the vegetation is quite dense and consists of trees, shrubs and cacti.
Riverside communities are usually isolated bands or islands of deciduous forests along temporary streams. There are very few permanent or drying streams (the largest is the Colorado River), but there are many where water appears for only a couple of days or even a few hours a year. Dry channels, or "washes", arroyo - "arroyos" are places where many trees and shrubs are concentrated. Xerophilic light forests along dry channels are very variable. Near-pure mesquite forest occurs along some temporary streams, while others may be dominated by blue paloverde or ironwood, or a mixed forest may develop. The so-called "desert willow" is characteristic, which is actually a catalpa.
The last of the great cities of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica was the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, located in the Valley of Mexico. By the time of the Spanish conquest in 1521, this city was better organized and larger than any european city that time. The Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes on August 13, 1521, after a 70-day siege, declared the city of Tenochtitlan the possession of the King of Spain. The splendor of this city amazed the winners. Their historians have described it as something magical because of its grandiose towers, temples and stone buildings rising straight out of the water. The city of Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 by the Aztecs on an island in the middle of a lake with marshy shores in the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs came to the valley from the north under the leadership of their leader Tenoch. Less than a hundred years have passed since the city was founded, as Tenochtitlan turned into a huge metropolis with a population of 150-200 thousand. It was connected with the banks by 3 wide dam roads: to the north, to the south and to the west. It was often necessary to move inside the city by water. In the middle of the city was giant size a ritual center with many temples and altars, where the 45-meter Great Temple towered above everyone. The great temple was built in the form of a pyramid, its facade was turned to the west. A wide double staircase led to the very top of the pyramid, where two smaller temples stood. These were the temples of the two most revered gods of the Aztecs: Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war, and Tlaloc, the god of rain and water. Subsequently, the stone blocks of the temple were used by the Spaniards for the construction of the Catholic Cathedral - the largest on the territory of the American mainland (the construction of the Cathedral took three centuries). During the excavations, many stone statues and masks of Tlaloc were found, but not a single image of Huitzilopochtli. From the Spanish chronicles it is known that his images were usually made from a special kind of dough and seeds that had decomposed a long time ago. The market in the city, according to the description of the Spaniards, was very large and well organized, with a huge variety of goods. Each type of goods had its own special place there, and all goods were carefully checked. The Aztecs had no money; people exchanged their goods among themselves or paid with cocoa beans, copper axes or pieces of matter. Notable in the city were the houses of the nobility. Some of them were so large that they often had gardens - both above ground and hanging. The gardens had fruit trees, herb patches, and exotic fish pools. But most amazing place was the ruler's palace. He had an arsenal, a weaving workshop, where women wove fabrics especially for the ruler, and workshops where potters, metal craftsmen, jewelers and other artisans worked. There was also an aviary, which contained every conceivable species of birds from all over the empire. Palace parks were the most amazing and magnificent in the whole world in that era. The ruler of Tenochtitlan and his nobility lived in the center of the city, near the ritual buildings. The rest of the population lived on the outskirts of the city in groups called calpulli and consisted of those who performed one type of work and their relatives. Each clan settled in a separate residential area, consisting of one-story houses. These houses were huts made of twigs and silt, or adobe buildings made of bricks. On August 3, 1521, the Spaniards captured Tenochtitlan, along with the last tlatoani Cuauhtemoc and a number of his supreme advisers. Subsequently, Tenochtitlan was completely plundered and destroyed, Cuauhtemoc was executed (in 1525), and the Aztec empire was completely subjugated by the Spaniards.
Tenochtitlan is a city-state located on the site of the modern city of Mexico City. The legend is that one day, the God of the sun and war, Huitzilopochtli, told the Mexica Indians (they are the Aztecs) to found a city in the place where they see a picture - an eagle on a cactus will hold a snake in its claws. They were given such an opportunity after 130 years of wandering in the southern lands. North America when, on one of the islands of Lake Texcoco, the Indians saw an eagle holding a snake in its claws.
According to a more realistic version, the Mexica tribe came to the Mexico Valley from the north - from lands now owned by the United States. At that time, the entire territory of the valley was divided among the local tribes, and, of course, none of them wanted to share the land with the aliens. After consulting, the local leaders decided to give the aliens desert island on Lake Texcoco. There were many snakes on the island, so the locals expected that the newcomers on the island would have a hard time. Arriving on the island, the Aztecs saw that many snakes lived on it, and they were very happy about this, since the snakes were their food. As a good sign, the Aztecs saw an eagle holding a snake in its paws. According to the Aztecs, this symbolized the triumph of good over evil.
Thus, approximately in 1325, on an island in the middle of the salt lake Texcoco, Tenochtitlan was founded (translated from the Aztec - "the house of cactus rock"), and in 1337, north of Tenochtitlan, a separated part of the tribe founded the satellite town of Tlatelolco.
The city grew rapidly: 7.5 square km and 100,000 inhabitants - these were the indicators of its growth approximately 100 years after its foundation. And over the next 100 years, the city grew to 13.5 square kilometers, which housed up to 212,500 inhabitants (according to other sources, up to 350,000 and even up to 500,000 inhabitants). The Spanish governor appointed by Cortés spoke of the city's one million population.
The city had many canals and lakes, so it was often necessary to travel by boat, as in modern Venice. The city itself was surrounded by countless dams and bridges that protected it from watercourses.
Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters: Teopan, Moyotlán, Quepopan and Astakalko. In the middle of the city there was a ritual center surrounded by the protective wall of Coatepantly (Snake Wall). The city was built up with temples, schools, outbuildings and houses. Because of the loose soil, the buildings were erected on long piles.
great pyramid. The pyramidal temple reached a height of 45 meters. Its facade was directed strictly to the west. A wide double staircase, consisting of 114 steps, led to the top of the temple, where two smaller temples were located on the platform. These are the temples of two dominant gods: Tlaloc - the god of rain and Huitzilopochtli - the god of the sun and war. Subsequently, after the Great Pyramid was destroyed, the stone blocks of the temple were used by the Spaniards to erect a Catholic cathedral - the largest in the entire territory of America. The Great Pyramid for its new history survived several stages of excavation. During recent research, many stone figurines and masks of Tlaloc have been discovered, however, archaeologists have not been able to find images of Huitzilopochtli. According to the Spanish chronicles, his images were made of a special material - dough and seeds, and, therefore, decomposed long ago. Currently open to the public and located on the Zocalo, to the right of cathedral Mexico City.
Tlatoani Palace. The palace complex consisted of a dozen stone one-story buildings. By appearance the complex was a combination of external and internal courtyards, as well as premises for various purposes. So, in the buildings, in addition to the dwellings of the nobility and the premises of Tlatoani, there were court rooms and council meetings. In total, the palace consisted of about three hundred rooms. The Spaniards wrote in their chronicles that one could easily get lost on the territory of the palace complex. All entrances and exits to the palace complex, of which there were about 20, were connected to several patios. The palace was located outside the ritual center. The palace complex, like the ancient capital of America itself, had its own infrastructure. Under him were: an arsenal, a courthouse, council buildings, a weaving workshop where women sewed clothes for the emperor and his family, jewelers? metal craftsmen, and other artisans. About five hundred servants looked after animals and birds alone.
In addition to the Tlatoani Palace, the city was home to the Achaiacatl Palace. The back of the building overlooked the main pyramid of the Aztec capital. The palace was huge and served as a treasury, and part-time temple. The Azayacatl Palace had no less number of halls and rooms than the imperial residence. The rooms of the palace could easily accommodate several thousand visitors. The most notable room of the palace was the immured treasury, created by the father of Montezuma II, and subsequently plundered by the Spaniards.
Tzompantli. It was an amphitheater-shaped building with rows of skulls set with teeth outward. Tzompantli was located near the main gate of the Aztec pyramid. At the end of the building there were two towers built from building mixtures and xotes. At the top of the towers there were pins on which the skulls of defeated warriors were mounted. Also on the ritual square of the capital of the Aztec state there was a building in the form of a tower. The entrance to it was guarded by two stone structures in the form of heads with open mouths. Inside the building were kept sacrificial knives, cauldrons and utensils for cooking sacrificial meat, and other ceremonial utensils.
The main market of the city. The territory of the market was surrounded by arcades and accommodated from 25 to 50 thousand visitors. The market was so large that its noise could be heard throughout the Aztec capital. The market worked seven days a week. A separate place was allocated for each type of trade, and the most important goods were provided with their own trading platforms. The Aztecs had no money and the function of the volute was performed by cocoa beans, corn, slaves and other important goods.
City dams. Tenochtitlan was surrounded on all sides by Lake Texcoco. However, the construction of dams was not so much a necessary measure as an opportunity to make life easier. The dams were built gradually, in several stages. Dams were built from earth and wood. Almost all dams served to move along them, but some performed their direct function - they held back the water that comes during the rainy season. The largest dam reached 9 kilometers in length.
Despite the fact that the Aztec capital was a huge city, most of the peasants lived on the outskirts of the city. Families lived in groups called calpulli. Each clan of Tenochtitlan lived in a separate residential area, consisting of many one-story houses - huts. The houses were for the most part huts made of silt, twigs and other improvised materials. Despite the considerable number of inhabitants, the capital of the Aztec empire did not suffer from overpopulation. From two to six people lived in one house. A married couple occupied one house or a large room in rare two-story buildings.
In the XV-XVI centuries, Tenochtitlan became one of the most beautiful cities Western hemisphere. Apparently, it was then one of the largest in the world: by the beginning of the 16th century, the population was almost 500 thousand people, a colossal figure at that time. This majestic city managed to exist for about two centuries. Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes, who arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, were amazed by the splendor of the huge city. According to one of the Spaniards who arrived on the island, "no one has ever seen, heard, or even dreamed of anything like what we saw then." The Aztecs, far from a peaceful people, subjugated most of their neighbors by military force, but the Spaniards were greeted surprisingly cordially, because according to ancient legend, the bearded, fair-faced and white-skinned god Quetzalcoatl, expelled by the Indians, was supposed to return precisely in the year of the reed rod, and Cortes and his comrades were mistaken for him.
The policy of Cortes, however, led to a conflict: an uprising broke out, and the Spaniards had to flee from Tenochtitlan on the night of July 1, later called the Night of Sorrow. Having been defeated, Cortes did not even think of giving up. Having replenished the army with people and weapons, he launched a new offensive against the Aztec capital - Mexico City, as the Spaniards already called Tenochtitlan, and on May 13, 1521, after a seventy-day siege, Tonochtitlan fell. Thus ended the history of one city and began
Tenochtitlan existed for only two centuries - trifles on the scale of the capital city. Founded around 1325 on an island in the middle salt lake Texcoco, it fell in 1521 under the onslaught of Hernan Cortes and his thugs.
The capital of the Aztecs was named after the leader Tenoch: he, as an honest man, judged that since he himself founded the city, he should name himself after himself. There are, of course, alternative versions of the translation. So, according to one of them, Tenochtitlan means "a city on the stones of which tuns grow in abundance" (sacred fruits), according to another - "the heart of the earth."
The Aztecs cut out people's hearts and sacrificed them to the sun.
The ancient Aztecs were nomadic hunters. To choose a place for the capital, for 260 years the Indians roamed from end to end. southern lands North America. And not just like that. According to legend, Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war, bequeathed to found a city where the Aztecs would see an eagle sitting on a cactus with prey in its claws. By the way, this image is on the flag of Mexico today. God said - there is nothing to do, you have to look. And so, in the first quarter of the XIV century, the Indians were lucky - they found such a place: with an eagle, and with cacti, and with a victim.
According to another, less romantic version, by the time the Aztecs came to the valley of modern Mexico City, the entire territory was divided among local tribes. Nobody wanted to give a good piece to the aliens, but to single out an uninhabited island on Lake Texcoco, where there were a lot of snakes, you are welcome, you are welcome. The locals expected the outsiders to have a hard time. However, they did not know that snakes were an indispensable element of the Aztec diet. The Indians were happy.
The site of the Aztec capital today is Mexico City.
Lake Texcoco, on the shore of which Tenochtitlan appeared, was rich in fish and waterfowl, and there was a lot of game. Good climate, food is plentiful - the city grew rapidly. Already 100 years after its founding, about 100 thousand people lived in the capital. By 1500 it was the most Big city on the ground. By the way, today Mexico City is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
The city was engaged in agriculture. Aztecs created artificial islands where vegetables, spices and flowers were grown. Tenochtitlan was divided into four districts, each of which had its own temple complex, and in the center of the city there was a giant ritual center with many altars, above which the 45-meter Great Temple towered. It was a “city within a city”: people entered the territory surrounded by a high wall only to perform special rituals.
At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. ekov Tenochtitlan was the most populous city
Taking into account the looseness of the soil, the Aztec builders erected all monumental buildings on long, thin and elastic piles. It was often necessary to move inside the city by water. In short, Venice the Mexican way.
At that time, sacrifices were very popular. If you need rain - make a sacrifice, if you want children - make a sacrifice, how to get rich - well, you understand. And so in everything. The Aztecs practiced this on a special scale. Every holiday (there were almost two dozen of them in the sacred calendar) they piled human corpses on the altar as a sign of great reverence for the gods.
The fall of Tenochtitlan ended the history of the Aztec empire.
Usually the victim was brought to the upper platform of a huge pyramid, laid on a slab, his stomach was cut open, his heart was taken out and lifted up to the Sun. Then the heart was placed in a special stone vessel, and the body was thrown onto the stairs, from where the priests carried it away. Then the body parts were disposed of in various ways: the entrails were fed to animals, the skull was polished and put on display, and the rest was either burned or cut into small pieces and offered as a gift to important people.
If prisoners were sacrificed, then they could first be tortured, drugged - in general, whatever your heart desires, if only the sun would shine brighter. And special raids to capture captives - future victims - were called very romantically "flower wars".
Were the Aztecs cannibals at the same time? There is no single answer. Some researchers say that the meat of the victims was part of the diet of the upper classes as a reward because the diet was low in protein. In one of his letters, Cortés, for example, said that his soldiers caught an Aztec roasting a baby for breakfast.
According to other sources, after the sacrifice, the body was given to the warrior who captured the captive, and he, in turn, boiled it, then cut it and offered pieces as a gift to important people in exchange for gifts and slaves. But this meat was rarely eaten, as it was believed that there was no value in it - it was replaced with a turkey or simply thrown away.
The Spaniards who came in the 16th century were amazed. On the one hand, they were inspired by the beauty and wealth of Tenochtitlan, on the other hand, the stories of numerous sacrifices chilled the blood. Hernan Cortes' first attempt to conquer the capital was made in 1519. The Aztecs fought back and drove out the invaders. The Spaniards left, but returned a year later with fresh forces. This time, before attacking the capital, the Spanish troops captured all the significant Aztec cities nearby.
The siege of Tenochtitlan lasted 70 days. The main difficulty of the battle was that the city had to make its way through the dams, where it was impossible to use horses. Then Cortes decided to go from the other side and ordered to destroy the water supply that supplied the capital with drinking water.
Despite this, the Aztecs resisted for quite some time. The protracted struggle exhausted the forces of both sides. The conquerors were exhausted, their allies from neighboring tribes began to grumble. Then Cortes accepted a plan for the complete destruction of the city. After stubborn fighting, the Spaniards broke through to the center of the capital, where the battle turned into a massacre. The conquistadors and their Indian allies sought to exterminate the surviving inhabitants of Tenochtitlan as soon as possible.
When it became clear that the city was surrendering, the Aztec emperor Montezuma II decided to escape. However, the Spaniards intercepted his canoe and took the ruler hostage. After they forced him to tell where the treasures were hidden, unarmed, exhausted Aztecs were released from the ruined Tenochtitlan.
The conquerors got gold, estimated at about 130 thousand Spanish gold ducats. But ... this was not enough. Then they began to torture the prisoners, demanding to know where the treasures were. More, however, they could not find out anything.
Taking Tenochtitlan, Cortes declared it the possession of the King of Spain. The city of Mexico City was founded on the ruins of the Indian capital. This ended the history of the Aztec empire.
The city-states and settlements of the Aztec civilization were built on the vast mountain plateaus of the Mexican Valley, on which the capital of Mexico is located today. These are fertile lands with total area in 6.5 thousand sq. km, - lands extending for approximately 50 km, in length and width. The Valley of Mexico lies at an altitude of 2,500 meters above sea level and is surrounded on all sides by volcanic mountains 5,000 meters high.
The Aztec civilization came to these lands because of Lake Texcoco, capable of supplying thousands of people with fresh water and food. The lake was fed by streams and mountain runoff, periodically overflowing the edges, and overflowing hundreds of meters. However, the lake supplied local residents drinking water, created a habitat for fish, mammals and birds. The triple alliance of city-states subjugated vast territories from the borders of Guatemala to present-day northern Mexico. Coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico, mountain gorges Oaxaca and Guerrero, the tropical forests of Yucatan - all this belonged to the Aztec civilization. Thus, at the disposal of the Indians were all sorts of Natural resources, which were not observed at their original locations.
The languages of the Nahuatl group were dominant in the Aztec civilization. Nahuatl dialects were adopted as a second language and played the role of an intermediary language in almost all areas of South America during the period of Spanish colonization. The language heritage of the Aztecs is found in multiple toponyms - Acapulco, Oaxaca. Historians estimate that about 1.5 million people still use the Nahuatl language or its variants in daily communication. The Aztec civilization spoke the Nahuatl languages without exception. The languages of this group have spread from Central America to Canada and include about 30 related dialects. The Aztec civilization, the Indians of this empire, were great connoisseurs and lovers of literature. They collected entire libraries of pictographic books with various descriptions of religious rites and ceremonies, historical events, tribute collections, and simple registries. The Aztecs used bark as paper. Unfortunately, most of the books belonging to the ancient Aztecs were destroyed by the Spaniards during the conquest. Today, scientists involved in the study of the ancient Aztec people have to work with grains of surviving written information. The first information about the Aztec Indians was obtained, which is not surprising, during the period of the conquest.
Aztec Indians Five letters, reports, to the king from Cortes contained primary information about the Indians of America. After 40 years, a soldier, a member of one of the expeditions of the Spaniards - Bernal Diaz Castillo, compiled true story Spanish conquest, where tenochki and their fraternal peoples were described in detail. The first information references about aspects of Aztec life and culture were compiled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, all kinds of ethnographic descriptions created by the Aztec nobility and Spanish monks. The most valuable example of such writing, which has survived to this day, is the multi-volume manuscript “The General History of New Spain”.
The culture of the Aztecs, through the means of language, was connected with the cultural complex of the Nahua peoples. According to myths and Indian legends, the tribes that later formed the once majestic and powerful Aztec empire came to the Anahuac Valley from the northern lands. The location of the Anahuac Valley is known for sure - this is the territory of the modern capital of Mexico, but it is not known for certain where the Aztecs came from to these lands. Researchers constantly put forward their theories about the historical homeland of the Indians, however, they all turn out to be false. According to legend, the ancestors of the Aztecs came from the north, from a place called Aztlan. According to legend, the Indians were led to new lands by the god Huitzilopochtli - “the god of the hummingbird”, “left-handed hummingbird”.
The Indians of America settled in the place indicated to them by the gods themselves - a well-known legend about an eagle sitting on a cactus, about an eagle from a prophecy about the new land of the Aztecs. Today, this legend - an eagle eating a snake - is displayed in the design of the Mexican flag. Thus, according to legend, as early as 1256, the Aztecs found themselves on the lands of the Mexico City Valley, surrounded by rocks and washed by the waters of Lake Texcoco. Before the arrival of the Aztec tribe, the lands of Lake Texcoco were divided between the dominant city-states. The Aztecs, recognizing the power of the ruler of one of the cities, settled on his lands and built their city, their great capital - Tenochtitlan. According to historical data, the city was built in 1325 AD. Today former capital Aztec is the historical center of Mexico City. According to beliefs, the local population took the Aztecs with hostility, they were considered uncivilized and uneducated, and most importantly unimaginably cruel. However, the Indian tribes who came did not respond to aggression with aggression - they decided to study; and they took all the knowledge they could from their neighbors.
The Aztecs absorbed the Vedas of the tribes surrounding them and the peoples close to them. The main source of the development of the tribes was the knowledge and experience of the ancient Toltecs, and the Toltec tribes themselves, as teachers. For the entire Aztec people, the Toltecs were the creators of culture. In the language of this people, the word "Toltecayotl" was synonymous with the word "culture". Aztec mythology identifies the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the city of Tollan ( modern city Tula in Mexico). Along with knowledge, the Aztecs also absorbed the traditions of the Toltecs and peoples close to them. Among the traditions were the foundations of religion. First of all, such borrowings include the myth of the creation of the world, which describes four suns, four epochs, each of which ended in the death of life and a universal catastrophe. In the Aztec culture, the current fourth epoch, the fourth sun, escaped destruction thanks to the self-sacrifice of the supreme god - the god Nanahuatl, which means "all in wounds."
