A bird eating a snake told us to put it here. We had no choice

Conclusion: Aztec engineers were better than Spanish engineers

History of Mexico city: -No mame jefe es un pinché lago +Quedará mamalon

Cómo ciudadano de la CDMX puedo decirte abiertamente y con toda certeza sin miedo a cometer algún error al decirte que la CDMX es un lugar que no fue planeado y creció a lo pendejo.

Me, who has been living there almost his entire life: they forgot the active volcano.

"This is our promised land!" "But... Its water, not land." "Not with that attitude."

the conquest of Tenochtitlan wasn't just Spanish vs Aztecs, it was an anti-Aztec Alliance lead by Cortez and followed by the top Aztec enemies in the region, the Tlaxcaltecas and multiple other vassal cities rebelling against Aztec rule. There were only 600 Spanish soldiers and thousands of Indigenous enemies of the Aztecs. Tenochtitlan was just half of the island the other half was Tlatelolco a different city with a different ruler but it was also Mexica.

Tenochtitlan was also a waste-free city. Unlike London or other european cities at the time, they had a very proficient system for organic and inorganic waste disposal. The water was clean and everyone showered regularly.

It didn't sucked until some crazy guy thought about building a city literally above an already perfectly built city

Patrick: “Why don’t we take Mexico City and push it somewhere else!”

In Cortés' diaries, Cortés expressed his amazement and admiration at seeing such a wonderful city. The Aztec Empire had clean water, they could bathe, they had food and canals that worked perfectly, but they did not take advantage of the city as it was.

Mexico City does have one huge geographic advantage. The weather is great all year around, heating and cooling costs are very low compared to most other places.

Extremely sad that we can't ever see this aztec city

"Imagine your house sinking 30 meters" Me, who lives below the sea-level already: _uhh, I'd rather not_

I live in Mexico City and because of the fragile terrain (you can go to the downtown and see how the cathedral and many buildings are sinking) the earthquakes are specially destructive here, literally makes you feel like you're stand on a jelly. Everyone fears them.

As a mexicain the lives in mexico city in our history class were taught that during the colonial period they tried to move the capital from mexico city to somewhere in Puebla because of the massive floodings and the spread of deseases and they even started the construction copies of important buildings in that place but at the last moment the king of spain told them that they would stay in mexico city and they just obey

Spain: *tries to conquer the Aztec’s capital The Aztecs: What are you doing in my swamp?!

Italy: We got a leaning tower. Mexico: Amateurs

As a Filipino I have always been fascinated by Mexico City ever since as a child and it's still my dream destination in the Americas..

Aztecs: Look at this incredible city we decided to build here, it's an architectural marvel- Spaniards: *destroys it* Aztecs: .... Spaniards: Oh no! The Spaniards proceeding to build a new city and shrinks the lake: _Anyway_ By the way, Mexica is pronounced "Meshika"

Mexico City's government: "And how can we solve this problem?" Real Life Lore: "Do you know about SKILLSHARE...?"

“Imagine your house 30 m lower” The Netherlands 🇳🇱: 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

some missing data: it was not just one lake, it was a lake system made up of 5 lakes: Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Xaltocan y Zumpango

Reading some comments from experts in the matter, I have to say, well done in this informative video about the city I was born but did not grow up in. I would like to know why you guys did not add your research notes. It would have given it a more powerful statement. Regardless, thank you for such a great job! Teotihuacan is the most fantastic place in México City. There are two main pyramids for those who have not been there, The Sun and The Moon pyramids. Standing on top of the Moon pyramid, one can appreciate an incredible view called by the Aztecs the "Avenida de Los Muertos" or "The Avenue of the Deaths." A sight to see!

Venice: I'm sinking in the ocean; Mexico City: I'm sinking in the earth.

That eagle must have been like: We do a little trolling.

Cualquiera : no se puede construir ahí... Azteca: ¿Cómo chingados no? B|

Really interesting, thank you for this video, even the sponsorship segment brought something good (motivation!)

Imagine being the bird that caused the creation of Mexico City and is now on their flag

Flying into Mexico City is still one of the craziest things I've seen. It's pretty much dense buildings as far as you can see. If you ever get the chance to visit, make sure to keep an eye out the window when landing or taking off

This sounds like more of a management problem than a geography problem. The area has fertile soil and incredible conditions for agriculture. Modernizing their transportation and water management systems basically solve all their problems. Replace cars with public transit and cycling, tear up all that concrete that cars were previously using, and suddenly you can replenish the aquifer again. Throw in some intentional water retention and dams to manage flooding to speed up the process, if you want, but it's certainly not an impossible project.

Así es, lo que dice nuestro estimado amigo es verdad. Gracias por informar acerca del tema, incluso para los que somos mexicanos, hay información que desconocíamos. Gracias! Saludos desde Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.

so you're telling me that the aztecs had a metropolitan city with the population size of boston perfectly suited to their environment and the spaniards came and short-sightedly imposed their european building methods onto the city and it was a disaster? 🤔

Eagle eating snake on a cactus: "What have I done"

In a way, the ground in Mexico City is like a ridiculous giant jelly.... the subway is like the fruit inside the jelly and the buildings, depending on whether they were built properly or not, are like fruit or cream, so you have an idea of how the city works with earthquakes.

9:42 that blue car is giving me anxiety

Who would have guessed draining an entire enormous lake would be bad

“Down to the level of Los Angeles” So it’s still terrible

I love México City, 500 years after of it's foundation is becoming one of the best cities in the world to live in. That's why many gringos are choosing Mexico City to live and develop their professional carrier today.

That traffic shot at 9:34 gave me anxiety 😂

Imagine how beautiful a city that would have been if they didn't fill in the lake. Imagine a city with Venice-like canals in Mexico.

When a city's position is so good that it had to be nerfed

Moctezuma: Aqui mero construirenos nuestra ciudad (We will built our city right here) Chichicota: No mame jefe es un pinche lago (WTF boss it's a fucking lake) Moctezuma: Quedara mamalon (It would be even cooler)

Tenochtitlan was builted just on 194 years, enough to become the most powerful city of the ancient world

Imagine how beautiful it must have been, a city up in the mountains, is an island in a lake. It's a paradox of every degree. I don't want to blame anyone, but destroying a city so beautiful, is cruelty beyond words.

I remember a meme that I saw that was like this: “We will build the city here” “Chief it’s a lake” “Oh it’s going to be dope”

Whenever I clean or replace my HEPA filters I know what I'm going to find but every time I'm like holy Jesus

How much time do you spend making a video like this? Or how much do you pay someone to make it?

"they've managed to reduce their air pollution levels to be similar to Los Angeles" thats still pretty fuckin awful

A couple days ago me and my dad where talking about Mexico and my father told me how Mexico's capital is slowly going down, at first I didn't really understand what he meant, that is untill I saw this video

One note: There were 5 lakes not one. Lakes Zumpango, Xaltocan, Texcoco, Chalco and Xochimilco. Very shallow all. During the intense raining season, these lakes would interconnect. The combined surface when full was aprox 1140 square km or 441 square miles

Porque la construyeron sobre un lago... Un lago.... Un puto lago!

I’m an urban designer from Mexico City and I’m impressed on how well informed this video is, you did a great job on your research! Maybe the only two things that you miss were 1. After the 5 years flood, they decided not to move the city because it was culturally, politically and religiously the most important area of the region. 2. The Mexico City water system is the longest (in time) and largest (in size) project that the city and probably the continent has ever had. The construction of the water system in order to drain the lakes started a few years after the Spanish conquer the city in 1521 and it roughly ended until the late 1800s, (almost 100 years after Mexico became independent) took more than 300 years to complete due to the difficult terrain, the technology of the time, the size of the project and other factors.

-"We will build the city here" -"Boss, its a fucking lake" -"it's going to be mamalon" And so it was.

Now I need a video about Acapulco please!

How did you make that thumbnail! So cool!

Ancient Geographists: "It's impossible to build here" Badass Aztecs: "Hold my pulque"

It would be cool to see Mexico City in a different timeline made to the Aztec’s design Like Venice but a lot bigger

This isn't racist, this is true

Tenochtitlán: **exists** Spanish Conquistadores: It's free real estate

Funfact: Mexico has a cool tradition of having some hardcore world-class civil engineers, one of the buffest one's Bernardo Quintana, who designed the modern waterworks + anti-sinking master plan for México City back in the 60's, the project is so massive, complex, detailed and elegant that to this day no one dares redesign it, nevermind touch it when planning for future developments, etc.

Just a small correction: the entirety of Mexico City is not sinking, only the old parts that are located in the former lake bed. I live in the southern part of the city were everything is basically volcanic soil.

I would peer out that concrete which is blocking water and deposit those in one of the unclaimed lands which you mentioned, and replace that with brick tiles which water can penetrate. If that's impossible, I can create rain water injecting drills in to the ground around feasible points of the city .

Can you talk about the subway system in Mexico City? it's quite an interesting topic!

Lake Texcoco was once an ideal place to build a city with the right technology. The climate was great, the reclaimed land was arable, and rainfall was pretty good. Also, it was a very strategic location.

So, basically, from minute 3 it's not hard to tell that the problem is not the location but the method used after the conquest to urbanize and build.

A sinked city would be a great tourist place

When the ground water is gone, the land will become a dead desert.

Eagle: Finally, I’ve got a good meal. I’ll just lounge on this cactus here and eat it. Years later: This is why Mexico City has been sinking 0.5 meters each year

Number one victory royale Yeah, Fortnite, we 'bout to get down (get down) Ten kills on the board right now Just wiped out Tomato Town My friend just got downed I revived him, now we're heading south-bound Now we're in the Pleasant Park streets Look at the map, go to the marked sheet … Take me to your Xbox to play Fortnite …

Given there's too much rain: Instead of rebuilding, when they raze old buildings they could replace them with fairly deep minilakes/reservoirs. It would collect rain from the immediate area, and if deep enough little would be wasted in evaporation (to deal with too much rain I guess they would use whatever runoffs are in place already). When there's enough of these ponds, they could be connected underground to merge them into effectively bigger reservoirs, and after a number of them are connected you could choose any one of them to source water in some local area. Eventually the city would be checkered with these lakes, catching a good portion of the rainwater, and some could be connected via surface canals to create waterways, sort of going back to its origins. The tradeoff would be less real estate, a somewhat shrinking city. Reminds me a bit of Tomb raider I architecture. The standing water though might be a problem, how do keep it from getting dirty. Maybe with enough fish it would be fine.

Zepp's first two records were are amazing indeed . I'm 76 years old , back then as now I loved jazz but I also loved rock . I loved ASTRAL WEEKS , loved the Dead , SURREALISTIC PILLOW by the Airplane , Hendricks , Stones , Beatles and more and you are correct , Led Zeppelin's first two , especially ... People should check out the video Led Zeppelin , 1970 , Royal Albert Hall , 'tis well worth it ...

I had a funny comment but got distracted by watching the entire video.

Wow, he really took the yellow filter off of Mexico, epic.

As a citizen of Mexico city (I mean I've never been to London but), I am sure we don't get as much rain as London. Maybe by stats, as in cm per year, maybe, but it's only during rain season (mid June to late August ish, climate change is kinda fucking with the rain season, we barely got any rain this year). I'm sure rain in London is more a year round thing.

Your air pollution has to be really bad for the air quality of Los Angeles to be a huge improvement

3:04 "Without discovering any practical use for the wheel". Let me tell you that the Aztecs did know the wheel but they did not use it because of their beliefs, they firmly believed in the circle of life, for them the spiritual was of the utmost importance, they were not stupid, they invented 0 and built pyramids on the tops of hills as is the case of Xochimilco, they knew how to move material without the use of the wheel.

11:00 Pushing Mexico city somewhere else just isn't really feasible. Patrick: Let me introduce myself.

Aztec: ***Sees an Eagle eating a snake*** Aztec: It's free real state

"Oh look, a delicious snake, i think i'm going to eat it in this comfortable cactus; Hopefully this won't change a civilization's destiny or anything"

The other kings thought it was draft to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same! It sank into the swamp....

I believe there is also a very dangerous volcano nearby , like in Naples

Any skyscraper in Mexico City is indeed a “monument.” Difficult it is to build on such land and more difficult to keep structures that high standing.

11:01 who says pushing Mexico City somewhere else isn’t feasible, they just never tried. Patrick’s suggestion to push Bikini Bottom worked.

It was perfectly fine until someone came along....

Why didn’t they just stick with the already built city with better geography

That's why Mexicos flag is so cool, and in my opinion, the most American flag in the Americas. It still has native American iconography on it. Very cool.

Mexico City is **sinking** Most of the Netherlands: ''First time?''

As a Mexican, i can confirm Mexico City is like a reverse Jenga game where you build the most stuff before an earthquake destroys Mexico City for the 69th time.

1:14 New York would like to have a word with you

The Ancient Aztecs looking at their city now: “look how they’ve massacred my boy”

I thought that it's more of a case of "Mexico City's geography used to be awesome"? It used to have abundant fresh water, food production and a very defensible location.

They have been saying California was going break in half by an earthquake for many years.

¿Alguien sabe de donde es la toma del minuto 7:39?/Does anyone know where the 7:39 minute shot is from?

All of this wouldn't have happened if the eagle didn't thought: "Ah this cactus looks perfect to eat my hunted snake in the middle of this lake that isn't inhabited!"

Nomadic Mexica: What are the chances of seeing an eagle eating a snake in its beak, while perched atop a cactus? Lake Texcoco: *Is That a Challenge?*

I really don't understand why there isn't a concerted attempt to capture the rainfall? We all try to do that here in Australia and there barely is any! A home here can last almost year round for a family of 4 for all water needs other than showers and washing machines, if you have two big tanks on a 3 bedroom house and you're careful with using it

1:25 why are the cars driving the wrong way?

The Aztec God watching this: that was my plan since the beginning

Native of Mexico City here. I've heard some solutions to the problem. One is that the lake must be revived. At least with some little artificial lakes near the city, and revive some artificial rivers. Which is very hard but not impossible. In the 80s a profesor conducted a proyect for an artificial lake, called Nabor Carrillo and it revived the natural bird migration. If we revive the lake to a degree, we could be restoring the equilibrium and water filtration and giving some breath to the water issue. Which let me tell you, is VERY problematic. You have a city with scarcity of water and with floodings at the same time, caus water can't pass the lake of concrete. Still a beautiful and very lovely city ♥️♥️♥️.