History | Ancient History on Instagram: "The Aztecs, who called themselves the Mexica, were a Nahua-speaking people who rose from nomadic origins to forge one of the most sophisticated empires in pre-Columbian America, centered in their magnificent capital of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco. According to their own lore, they were guided by the god Huitzilopochtli to settle where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its beak—an image that later became the emblem of modern Mexico—s