tropic of cancer
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PANORAMA - Mexico City
The march went on. Finally, the Spanish reached the outskirts of Teotihuacan. It was a wonderful city: a wide street, temples, terraces, gardens, and in the distance the blue mountains reaching up. Throngs of the curious beheld the Spanish and their armor and their cannon and their horses. The Spaniards looked at the people, at the canals, and at the boats gliding in the water, carrying produce to market. They saw the huge causeways, miles long, wide enough for 10 horses to ride abreast. Bernal Diaz, a soldier of Cortes' army, described the wonder he felt, as he and his comrades first saw the shining capital of the Atztecs. The city "seemed like an enchanted version from the tale of Amadis", he wrote. "Indeed some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream."
copyright 1996 felix s. huber, christoph keller, philip pocock, florian wüst