On a lake island rose a city larger than London — fed by floating gardens, ruled by tribute. Then 1521: smallpox did most of the killing.
In 1325, on a marshy island in a highland lake, a band of upstarts founded a city. Two centuries later it was among the largest on earth — bigger than London, bigger than Seville — fed by gardens floating on water. Its name was Tenochtitlan. Its fall, in 1521, would be decided less by swords than by germs.
