Texcoco, Lake: see Mexico, city; Tenochtitlán.

Lake, central Mexico. Originally one of the five lakes of the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco has been drained by channels and a tunnel to the Pánuco River since the early 17th century. It now occupies only a small area surrounded by salt marshes just east of Mexico City. Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, stood on islands in old Lake Texcoco and was connected to the mainland by causeways.

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Texcoco is a municipio (municipality) of Mexico State, located in the Valley of Mexico to the east of the national capital, Mexico City. The municipality's main settlement, the city officially known as Texcoco de Mora, is also commonly referred to as "Texcoco". The city is built on the foundations of the original Texcoco, which in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology was one of the major city-states of the pre-Columbian Aztec Empire, and one of the founders of the Aztec Triple Alliance.

The city stands at about 2,250 meters above sea level. The city was originally founded on the eastern bank of the Lake Texcoco but is now well within the boundaries of Greater Mexico City. In the census of 2005 Texcoco de Mora had a population of 99,260 people and Texcoco municipality had a population of 209,308. The municipality has an area of 418.69 km² (161.66 sq mi) and includes numerous smaller communities besides Texcoco de Mora. The largest of these are San Miguel Coatlinchán, Tulantongo, and Santiago Cuautlalpan. Historically, the name of the city has sometimes been rendered as Tezcuco or Tetzcoco.

The city also has impressive Spanish Colonial Style architecture, including a large convent and the cathedral built atop the base of a pre-Columbian pyramid.

History

By the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Texcoco was the one of the largest and most prestigious cities in the central Mexican plateau region, second only to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. A survey of Mesoamerican cities estimated that pre-Conquest Texcoco had a population of up to 24,000 and occupied an area of 450 hectares. It was here that the first european school in the American continent was founded by Pedro de Gante in the first half of the 16th century.

Notes

References

• Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005 Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI)
• Texcoco, Estado de México. In Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México (2005). Secretaría de Gobernación, Gobierno del Estado de México. Retrieved on 2007-01-22..

External links

• Texcoco municipal government official website