00:00 Do you know how Mexico City looked like 500 years ago?
00:05 You are in 1513.
00:07 Around you, the clouds pass slowly.
00:11 You can see the volcanoes and Lake Texcoco.
00:15 The sound is not of cars and planes, but of birds, voices in Nahuatl and constant drums.
00:22 Water flows through the avenues and canoes that transport flowers and food.
00:28 Could you make an image with all these elements?
00:32 A.D. Insider, a journey to the heart of pieces and outstanding architectural, art and design projects,
00:39 in which we explain the relevance of these jewels.
00:42 Tomás Cole and a group of experts based on historical and archaeological sources
00:47 recreated Tenochtitlán in the most faithful way possible, using current technology.
00:52 It is the year 1518.
00:54 Mexico-Tenochtitlán, which was once a modest settlement, is today a bustling metropolis,
01:01 capital of an empire that governs and receives tributes from more than 5 million people.
01:06 Tenochtitlán houses 200,000 inhabitants dedicated to agriculture, art, trade, war, priesthood and government.
01:16 In the present, this city is known as the City of Mexico.
01:21 In reality, there is not much left of the ancient Tenochtitlán.
01:25 The project allows us to consider the notion of space that our ancestors had
01:30 and shows us how the capital looked from various perspectives and climatic phenomena.
01:35 The grid pattern reveals that Tenochtitlán is a city of hierarchies.
01:40 The neighborhoods are carefully planned and have markets, schools and workshops of their own.
01:47 The droughts are maintained to facilitate the transport of people and goods.
01:52 Steps and bridges form the fabric of the city.
01:56 The houses were made of wood and marble, the roofs were made of reeds,
02:01 although the pyramids, temples and palaces were generally made of stone.
02:07 How is the ancient Tenochtitlán related to the city we know today?
02:12 Building a city on a lake involves a constant fight against water.
02:16 A complex system of ditches, canals, exclusions and a 16-kilometer-wide ravine
02:22 totals the mexicas of fresh water from the mountains.
02:26 The mexicas make cultivable plots by nailing stakes in the bottom of the lake
02:30 and filling the space with soil and gravel.
02:33 In the chinampas, corn, beans, pumpkin, chili and flowers were grown.
02:39 The city of Mexico rose above the ruins of Tenochtitlán.
02:43 The stones of the temples that were demolished were reused after the Spanish conquest.
02:48 The lake was drained, the canals became streets.
02:52 Of the original metropolis, there is almost nothing left.
02:56 "Retrato de Tenochtitlán" by Thomas Cole is a project that connects us with our historical roots,
03:02 challenges us to think about our identity and shows us how the past is still alive in the present.
03:09 The project was made with open source software, Blender, Gimp and Darktable.
03:15 And the bases have a CC 4.0 Creative Commons license.
03:21 (dramatic music)
03:23 you
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