A Rare Aztec Codex Detailing the Rise and Fall of Tenochtitlan Returns to Mexico for the First Time in Nearly Two Centuries

The artifact, among the most prized visual accounts of Aztec history, will be on display in Mexico City for three months

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

September 21, 2026 3:34 p.m.

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For the first time since 1840, an ancient book of pictograms telling the story of the rise and fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan has returned to Mexico. The centuries-old manuscript was displayed last week in Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), where it will remain for three months on loan from France.  

Officially known as the Azcatitlan Codex, the relic is considered one of the most prized visual accounts of Aztec history. Created in the Valley of Mexico between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, its 50 folios combine European writing with Mesoamerican illustration to depict “the Mexica migration from Aztlán, the reigns of Tenochtitlan’s rulers, and the [Spanish] conquest and evangelization,” according to Mexico News Daily.

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Tenochtitlan, the site of modern-day Mexico City, was founded as the Aztec capital in 1325, after hunter-gatherers settled along the shores of Lake Texcoco. Guided by Montezuma II and bolstered by advanced agricultural techniques, the empire expanded quickly, reaching at its height as far south as modern-day Nicaragua and boasting a population of between five million and six million people.  

In 1519, Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan with horses and guns. Two years later, the Aztec Empire fell. All of this history, and more, is documented in the codex. 

“These codices are extremely important to us because they continue to give us identity and value as human beings during these very special times we are experiencing,” Maria ‌Eugenia Castañeda, ⁠representative of the Mexica peoples, tells Reuters’ Alberto Fajardo. “They elevate our morale, our customs, our culture and our sense of who we are.”

The manuscript’s long-clamored-for return to Mexico has renewed the issue of its contested ownership. Historians estimate that the codex was first held by the historian Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, a descendant of Nezahualcóyotl, one of Texcoco’s most-renowned rulers. It passed through the hands of several scholars and libraries before being sold in Paris to the Franco‑Mexican collector Eugène Goupil, whose widow donated it to France’s National Library around 1898. Since then, it has been held by the French government, and both France and Mexico claim to be its rightful owner.

“Codices do not belong to institutions; they belong to the people and to the generations who recognize themselves in them,” Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, said at the exhibition opening, El País’ Sonia Corona reports. 

Despite past tensions, the Mexican government will make no effort to reclaim the codex from France while it’s in Mexico City. The work’s temporary return is a symbolic gesture—the celebration of 200 years of Franco-Mexican diplomacy—made possible only through Mexico’s willingness to loan the Boturini Codex, another famed pictographic depiction of Aztec migration, to France for three months.

Inside the MNA, the original bound Azcatitlan Codex sits under protective glass, opened to pages that portray eight distinct Indigenous peoples organizing a search for Tenochtitlan, under the guidance of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun and war. Photographs of the remaining folios hang on nearby walls, surrounded by other archaeological artifacts, including codices, tools, textiles and pectorals.   

The centerpiece pages were chosen because they “allowed many other peoples to identify themselves, not just the Aztec people but seven other peoples as well,” Baltazar Brito Guadarrama, the museum’s director, tells El País. “And in that sense, I think it’s more appropriate that people come and identify with their historical heritage.” 

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.