.
The capital city of the Aztecs was an artificial island, formed by piling up mud.
from the lake bottom, called Tenochtitlan, inhabited by over 100000 people, twice the.
population of any European city at the time. Tenochtitlan means "Place of the Cactus" and under Montezuma, it became the most powerful city in Mexico. It had an advanced water supply system, with public fountains and reservoirs throughout the city. Laid out into a grid pattern, it was divided by canals- "roads" for canoe traffic- and into four districts, each with it's own temples, schools and markets. The edges of the city had simple housed for the poor; the center had grand houses for the rich. Markets were held every five days and people from everywhere came to sell goods, exchange gossip and news. Officers patrolled the streets and thieves would be tried and punished on the spot. Tenochtitlan was indeed a very organized city. .
The Incan empire was an agriculturally based theocracy rigidly organized along.
socialistic lines. The entire domain was also divided into four great regions or quarters and these regions were subdivided into provinces and various other lesser socioeconomic.
groups. While Tenochtitlan had a system of canals and paved roads to keep the city together, there was a great network of stone roads connecting all parts of the realm to the.
capital city of Cuzco. Trained runners, working in relays, covered up to 400 km a day.
delivering messages. Like the Aztecs, who often traveled around their city in canoes, the.
Incas had Balsa wood boats which provided a rapid means of transportation along rivers.
and streams. Although the Incas had neither horses, nor a system of writing, authorities in.
Cuzco were able to keep in close touch with developments around the empire with this.
system. Communication was also enhanced by keeping numerical records of troops, supplies, population data, and general inventories by means of knotted and colored string.
