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Tag Archives: North America
Who Was the Bearded White God of Mexico?
Quetzalcoatl, the “Plumed Serpent,” was a major god of the Aztecs who were living in Mexico when the first European explorers reached that land.
Some legends depicted Quetzalcoatl as the creator of’ the world. Others described him as the father of civilization, a bearded white god who had come to Mexico from across the sea with [...]
Who Lost Their Heads for a Sport?
The Aztecs, Mayas, and other peoples who lived in America before the first Europeans arrived played spectator sports just as we do today.
The most popular of these sports, called tlachtli by the Aztecs, was something like a cross between volleyball, soccer, and basketball. But to some players, tlachtli could be much more dangerous than any [...]
What Was the Not So Great Escape?
In 1975, prisoners at a jail in Saltillo, Mexico, began to dig a tunnel that would take them beyond the prison walls to freedom. They labored long and hard on the project, and in April 1976, it was completed.
When the would-be escapees came up out of the tunnel, however, they found themselves in the very [...]
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Leave a commentWhere Can You Draw Your Address?
The city of Merida in the Yucatan region of Mexico was founded in the sixteenth century on the site of an Indian town. The Mayan Indians have lived in this region for centuries, and even today many of them speak no Spanish.
Signs’ bearing the names of streets in Merida wouldn’t be very helpful, because many [...]
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Leave a commentWhy Does the Flag of Mexico Have an Eagle Perched on Top of a Cactus?
Today, Mexico City is the largest city on earth that is not on a river or a sea. According to a legend of the Aztec Indians, an eagle was responsible for selecting the site of the city. The eagle was seen landing on a cactus on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco, and the Aztecs [...]
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Leave a commentWhat Is the Legend of the “Smoking Mountain”?
Popocateptl, a volcano about 50 miles from Mexico City, is the fifth highest mountain in North America, at 17,887 feet. The volcano hasn’t erupted since 1802, but it still belches smoke occasionally, and its name means smoking mountain.
According to Indian legend, Popocateptl was once a giant, the lover of another giant named Ixtaccihautl. But the [...]
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Leave a commentWhere Should You Go to Mine for Silver?
After gold, silver has historically been the second most valuable metal, and it remains very valuable today. Silver is attractive, and it is easy to work with, one ounce of it can be stretched into a wire 30 miles long! It’s also an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and it is essential in almost [...]
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Leave a commentWhat Is the Second Largest City on Earth?
The Second Largest City in the World in 2008 was Mumbai, India, with a population of 13.5 million people.
In 1985, Mexico City ranked as the second most populous city on earth, after the Chinese city of Shanghai, and the second most populous metropolitan area, after New York. Back then, Mexico City had a population of [...]
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Leave a commentWhen Is California Not in the United States?
When it’s Baja California!
Baja means “low” in Spanish. Baja California is the peninsula of Mexico that extends southward from the border with the state of California. Also known as Lower California, the peninsula measures 760 miles in length and is up to 150 miles wide, with a total area of some 55,000 square miles. But [...]
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What Was Once America’s Greatest City?