Moctezuma II
Construction projects

Moctezuma, like many of his predecessors, built a tecpan (palace) of his own. This was a particularly large palace, which was somewhat larger than the National Palace that exists today which was built over it, being about 200 meters long and 200 meters wide. However, little archaeological evidence exists to understand what his palace looked like, but the various descriptions of it and the space it covered have helped reconstruct various features of its layout. Even so, these descriptions tend to be limited, as many writers were unable to describe them in detail. The Spanish captain Hernán Cortés, the main commander of the Spanish troops that entered Mexico in the year 1519, himself stated in his letters to the king of Spain that he would not bother describing it, claiming that it "was so marvelous that it seems to me impossible to describe its excellence."

The palace had a large courtyard that opened into the central plaza of the city to the north, where Templo Mayor was. This courtyard was a place where hundreds of courtiers would hold multiple sorts of activities, including feasts and waiting for royal business to be conducted. This courtyard had suites of rooms that surrounded smaller courtyards and gardens.

His residence had many rooms for various purposes. Aside from his room, at the central part of the upper floor, there were two rooms beside it which were known as coacalli (guest house). One of these rooms was built for the lords of Tlacopan and Texcoco, the other two members of the Triple Alliance, who came to visit. The other room was for the lords of Colhuacan, Tenayohcan (today known as Tenayuca) and Chicuhnautlan (today, Santa María Chiconautla). The exact reason why this room had this purpose remains uncertain, though a few records like Codex Mendoza say the reason was that these lords were personal friends of Moctezuma. There was also another room which became known as Casa Denegrida de Moctezuma (Spanish: Moctezuma's Black House), a room with no windows and fully painted black which was used by Moctezuma to meditate. Remains of this room have been found in recent years in modern Mexico City. The upper floor had a large courtyard which was likely used as a cuicacalli, for public shows during religious rituals. The bottom floor had two rooms which were used by the government. One of them was used for Moctezuma's advisors and judges who dealt with the situations of the commoners (likely the Tlacxitlan). The other room was for the war council (likely the Tequihuacalli), where high-ranking warriors planned and commanded their battles.

As part of the construction of Moctezuma's palace, various projects were made which made it more prestigious by providing entertainment to the public.

One of the most famous among these projects was the Totocalli (House of Birds), a zoo which had multiple sorts of animals, mainly avian species, but also contained several predatory animals in their section. These animals were taken care of by servants who cleaned their environments, fed them, and offered them care according to their species. The species of birds held within the zoo were widely varied, holding animals like quetzals, eagles, true parrots, and others, and also included water species like roseate spoonbills and various others that had their pond.

The section with animals other than birds, which was decorated with figures of gods associated with the wild, was also considerably varied, having jaguars, wolves, snakes, and other smaller predatory animals. These animals were fed on hunted animals like deer, turkeys, and other smaller animals. Allegedly, the dead bodies of sacrificial victims were also used to feed these animals, and after the battle known as La Noche Triste, which occurred during the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in June 1520 (during which Moctezuma died), the bodies of dead Spaniards may have been used to feed them.

This place was highly prestigious, and all sorts of important people are said to have used to visit this place, including artists, craftsmen, government officials, and blacksmiths.

The Totocalli, however, was burnt and destroyed, along with many other constructions, in the year 1521 during the Siege of Tenochtitlan, as the Spanish captain Hernán Cortés ordered for many of the buildings that formed part of the royal palaces to be burnt to demoralize the Mexica army and civilians. Though Cortés himself admitted that he enjoyed the zoo, he stated that he saw it as a necessary measure in his third letter to King Charles I of Spain.

Another construction was the Chapultepec aqueduct, built in 1506 to bring fresh water directly from Chapultepec to Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. This water was driven to the merchant ports of the city for people to drink and to the temples. This aqueduct was destroyed less than a year after Moctezuma's death, during the Siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, as the Spaniards decided to destroy it to cut Tenochtitlan's water supply. Some Mexica warriors attempted to resist its destruction, but were repelled by the Tlaxcalan allies of the Spanish.
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