Estatua a Tezozomoctzin

Who he was. Tezozómoc was the ruler of Azcapotzalco from 1353 until his death in 1426 —a military and political strategist who made the Tepanec state the dominant power of the Valley of Mexico, with the then-young Tenochtitlan among its tributaries. The borough's own name and identity rest on that period: the empire that preceded the Mexica, and that the Mexica dismantled within a decade of his death.

What you see. A statue in the centre of Azcapotzalco, on Castilla, standing in open ground and accessible at any hour. It is a monument rather than a site: five minutes, as part of a walk through the old centre of the borough, which keeps its colonial parish church and convent around the main square.

Combine it with. Parque Tezozómoc, the large park a short ride north, which was landscaped as a scale model of the valley's old lake system —the best way to understand what the lake geography that Tezozómoc ruled over actually looked like. Metro Azcapotzalco and Camarones on Line 6 are the nearest stations.