Today is Day 2 of the A History of the World in 25 Cities book tour
My 11 year old map mad historian has chosen a city in the book
For us to visit
Tenochtitlan
Mexico City
But first let me tell you a little about this beautiful book
A History of the World in 25 Cities is a stunning book of maps
Created in collaboration with The British Museum
It shows the history of human life through the cities
From Jericho to Rome
Constantinople to Beijing
From Delhi to Paris to Tokyo
We learn the history of each city
How they came to be
What they became known for
How some were destroyed
Each city has fascinating stories to tell
Wars
Revolutions
Rebellions
But we can also learn about daily life in the city
Past and present
With also a glimpse at cities of the future
This is an amazing book that takes young readers on a journey
Over land and sea
And through time
There is so much to learn from these pages
So much to talk about and take inspiration from
To give you an idea of the quality of this book
To give you a glimpse of the creativity
A sense of the rich and fascinating factual content
Lets visit Tenochtitlan
As with any book William heads for the numbers first
The ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan had an area of 13 square kilometres
Modern Mexico City is 1485 square kilometres
Tenochtitlan housed around 300,000 people in the early 1500s
6 times the population of London at that time
The population of Mexico City today is 8.9 million people
We begin our excursion exploring a map of the city
Showing that the Aztec capital was built on marshy land
In the middle of Lake Texcoco
The Aztecs used canals for transporting people and goods
The city was connected to the mainland
By causeways which could be pulled up
Turning the city into an island fortress
The Aztecs were fierce warriors
Who forged an empire that stretched across
What is now New Mexico
The second spread focused on Tenochtitlan
Tells of Aztec city life
How the city was kept clean
And what schools were like
I loved reading about the poetic names the Aztec’s gave their children
William loved learning about religious sacrifices
William has been inspired by this book to learn more
About the structure of Aztec society
And about their gods and goddesses
William and I spent some time looking at The British Museum website
And found their wonderful education resources
Including brilliant notes about the Aztecs
William and I have also loved reading about
Cities of Today and Cities of Tomorrow
This brilliant non fiction book
Would make a wonderful gift this festive season
The book fits not only a historical and geographical theme
But also an environmental one
Some cities including Tenochtitlan were already using ideas
We are trying today to revert climate change
We learn how some cities today are in danger because of the effects of climate change
And we learn how the cities of tomorrow could help make our world
A better, cleaner, greener and more inclusive place
This is a book that has so much to give its readers
For more sneak peeks do follow the rest of the book tour
Next stop Athens with @RaisingSmallReaders
We were sent a copy of the book in exchange for our honest review