Part 2/8:
As the Spaniards landed on the shores of what is now Mexico, they were met with a spectacle that dwarfed any of their expectations. Tenochtitlán, the sprawling capital of the Aztec Empire, was unlike anything they had ever seen. Descriptions by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of the soldiers, capture the sheer wonder and disbelief in the faces of the conquistadors. The vastness and wealth of the city were overwhelming, and this culture was so complex that it almost seemed surreal.