Source:WTL photo in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Mexico, D.F.
Image: At the end of the entrance pathway to the Plaza we find this bilingual sign (Náhuatl and Spanish), which tells about the last ruler of Tlatelolco, which was a semi-autonomous city on the north end of the island of Tenochtitlán. Tlatelolco was a very prosperous market place. For a close-up of this sign, go to: => Tlatelolco #2a.
Comment: Tlatelolco (> xaltelolco) means 'Mountain of Sand"). This place on the island in the Lake of Texcoco was inhabited as early as the 10th century of the Common Era, or about three centuries before Tenochtitlán was settled. In the 13th and 14th centuries C.E. the tlatelolcas were vassals of the kingdom of Azcapotzalco in the mainland. In 1473 the Aztec emperor Axayácatl conquered Tlatelolco and incorporated it into the Aztec empire; nevertheless, the tlatelolcas retained some degree of self-rule.