Passage: On 8 November 1519, after the fall of Cholula, Cortés and his forces entered Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Mexica-Aztecs.:219 It is believed that the city was one of the largest in the world at that time, and the largest in the Americas up to that point. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people. If the population of Tenochtitlan was 250,000 in 1519, then Tenochtitlan would have been larger than every city in Europe except perhaps Naples and Constantinople, and four times the size of Seville. To the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan was the "altar" for the Empire, as well as being the city that Quetzalcoatl would eventually return to.
For which peoples was Tenochtitlan the capital city? How many European cities was Tenochtitlan likely larger than? How many people difference was it between the smallest and the largest estimates of Tenochtitlan's size? Where did Cortés enter first, Cholula or Tenochtitlan? Which city is larger, Tenochtitlan or Seville?