The Lost City of Aztlan

(An ancient parchment from the Aztec empire that shows the crossing from Aztlan to their known location)

The Claim

The ancient lost city of the Aztecs’ birthplace is still to be found

Most people have heard of the Aztecs, as they were one of the most powerful tribes central America ever saw, and their history is relatively well documented, with temples and the ruins of settlements open to the public, but very little is known about their beginning.

The most common theory is that the Aztecs started as a much smaller tribe and, according to Nahuatl legend, were once part of a collective of 7 tribes that lived in a land called Chicomoztoc, which means “the place of the seven caves”.

From here, the 7 tribes migrated to the land known as Aztlan, which is supposed to mean “the land to the north from whence we came,” and built their first city here. Aztlan is most commonly referred to as an island, which would suggest it would be easy to find, but the lake and river systems would have been very different 1000 years ago, and it could well have been an island surrounded by a split river, which today could be in the middle of anywhere.

At Aztlan, the 7 tribes are said to have become one people and eventually became known as the Aztecs before migrating again to the known historical location of Tenochtitlán in Mexico. The oldest piece of recorded Aztec history comes from the 24th of May, 1064, when the Aztecs made records of their first solar year, but how long they were at the land of Aztlan or the land of Chicomoztoc before that will forever remain unknown.

Aztlan itself has been given a mythical status along with other lost cities like Atlantis, and even though there have been many searches for the city over the years, it hasn’t been found. The various Aztec ruins in Central America all appear to be well after the 7 tribes came together, and don’t include any indication of their individual cultures.

If the city were found, it would most likely be nothing more than a load of wall foundations, but it would also be very easy to tell if whatever was found was indeed Aztlan. The ruins would include various fragments of the past from the different tribes, and items such as bowls and tools would be made in different styles and with artwork personal to 1 tribe.

(Aztlan would most likely be a primitive Stone Age settlement, with little there that would last for so many years) 

There’s a lost Aztec city out there, you say? Could that be true?

Yes, it most certainly could, but it likely won’t be anything as people imagine. Lost ancient cities are normally imagined to be somewhat fantasy like, with vines twisting round tall columns and heavy stone doors barring the entrance to some secret tomb, but in reality people who lived in times before 1000 ad in central and south America were known to be quite primitive, with most tribes not even having metal, instead relying on obsidian and flint to make their tools and weapons.

The city is also likely to have existed because most major civilisations throughout history have started somewhere other than where they had the prime of their empires, and with so many reasons to move from their original position, it’s very likely, if not guaranteed, that they lived in large numbers elsewhere before they became known as the Aztecs of Mexico.

As for treasure, there isn’t likely to be anything more than a few stone carvings and heavily degraded tools, as anything of worth would have been taken in the migration, though any find would certainly be of great historical value.