From the mountain passes, the Spaniards finally see it.
A vast city shimmering across a great lake. Towering pyramids. Broad causeways. Thousands of canoes. To many of Cortés's hardened veterans, Tenochtitlan appears less like a city than a dream.
But before they reach the Aztec capital, they must first understand the empire they have entered.
This episode explores the astonishing rise of the Mexica from impoverished outsiders to masters of Mesoamerica, the immense power of Emperor Moctezuma II, and the fragile political order that held his empire together.
As Cortés marches inland, he acquires indispensable allies, forges an alliance with the fiercely independent Tlaxcalans, and exploits the deep divisions within the Mexica Empire.
Along the way come some of the conquest's most controversial moments, including the massacre at Cholula, before the Spaniards finally enter one of the greatest cities on Earth and come face to face with Moctezuma himself.
How did a few hundred Spaniards persuade thousands of indigenous allies to join their cause?
Was Moctezuma paralysed by superstition, or carefully playing a diplomatic game?
And when Cortés first gazed upon Tenochtitlan, did he see the richest prize in the world, or a magnificent trap from which there would be no escape?
Join Joseph Parkinson as Ancient to Recent continues the story of Hernán Cortés and the conquest of Mexico.
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