• By the 16th century, corn cobs had grown to over five times their original size (around 15 centimeters or 6 inches). How big was the longest ear of corn you've ever eaten?

• Ancient Aztec books tell us that children around eleven or twelve years old were given one and a half tortillas to eat each day. Would that fill you up?

• The city of Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 A.D. on an island surrounded by swamps. Less than 100 years later, it had almost 200,000 people!

• The ancient Aztecs did not destroy their old temples; they just built on top of them. The great temple of Tenochtitlan was rebuilt at least 6 times.

The Aztecs were a Nahuatl-speaking northern Mexican tribe that founded Tenochtitlan in the Valley of Mexico. During the 15th and 16th centuries, they ruled an empire that reached across central and southern Mexico. Also called the Mexica.

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