El Palacio Nacional de México | Lo que Cortés Construyó Sobre el Palacio de Moctezuma | 1524 d.C.

DESCRIPTION: The National Palace of Mexico has been the seat of power in this country for over 500 years. Presidents, viceroys, conquistadors—all governed from this same building on the Zócalo. What almost no one knows is what was there before. Moctezuma II's palace covered more than 60,000 square meters. It had three hundred rooms, a zoo with animals from all over the continent, an aviary with more than 500 species of birds, and gardens that even the Spanish soldiers described as unbelievable. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote that he would tire of recounting everything he saw inside—and Díaz had seen the palaces of Spain and Portugal. Hernán Cortés demolished that palace stone by stone. He used the same stones to build his own on top of it. In 1998, during restoration work on the National Palace, INAH archaeologists discovered stucco floors and water channels from Moctezuma's reign preserved beneath the colonial foundations. The destroyed palace is still there, beneath the palace that replaced it. This is the story of what Cortés built upon what Moctezuma left behind. 📌 Subscribe to The Unknown Roots and turn on notifications. 🔔 More videos from the channel: ▸ This is What the Inquisition Was Like in Mexico City | 1571 AD ▸ The Cathedral Mexico Built Upon an Empire | 1600 AD ▸ This is What the Zócalo of Mexico City Was Like | What Lies Buried Beneath Your Feet | 1550 AD 📚 Sources: ▸ Bernal Díaz del Castillo — The True History of the Conquest of New Spain ▸ Frances Berdan — "The Aztecs of Central Mexico" ▸ INAH — Excavation Reports of the National Palace, 1998-2002 ▸ Ross Hassig — "Mexico and the Spanish Conquest" ▸ General Archive of the Nation — Royal Decrees, Purchase of Cortés's Palace, 1562 Hashtags: #NationalPalace #MexicoCity #Moctezuma #HernánCortés #Aztecs #NewSpain #HistoryOfMexico #ColonialMexico #TheUnknownRoots #Tenochtitlán