page_title: Cemanahuac
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cemanahuac / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Tenochtitlan and islands in the Texcoco Lake
context_page_description: Cēmānāhuac was the name used by the Aztecs to refer to their world. It corresponds to the modern term Mesoamerica.
context_section_description: The Aztec people who came from Aztlán and settled in Tenochtitlan (today's Mexico City) called their land Cemanahuac, knowing their land was surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The notion of Cemanahuac is also tied to the pyramid-driven philosophy of the Aztecs, their land sitting on top of a natural pyramid (chain of mountains of Central Mexico culminating in Tenochtitlan) the same way that Aztecs leaders sit on top of the Aztec pyramids (and the same way Aztec people engineered their social life). Tenochtitlan perfectly fit into this pyramidal paradigm, thus the association of the city to Cemanahuac. The city of Aztlán from which the Aztecs originated was also surrounded by water.
caption: Tenochtitlan and islands in the Texcoco Lake.
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