People have been living in the area around modern-day Mexico City for about 12,000 years, but the origins of the city itself date back to around 1325, when the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco. Two hundred years later, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in the region, eventually conquering the city on 13 August 1521, following a 79-day siege. These images, drawn from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, show the city as it was at the turn of the last century, just before the beginning of the period of unprecedented growth that has seen the city become the world’s second largest