Mexico City - Tacuba

To the right of Avenida Manuel Avila Camacho extends the district of Tacuba, formerly Tlacopan, which in pre-Columbian times was capital of the Tepanec kingdom for three generations until the defeat of the Tepanecs by other Nahua tribes in 1428. The victorious cities of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco and Tlacopan then formed a triple alliance which lasted until the Mexica established their predominant authority. In the middle of Tacuba near the Cuitlahuac Metro station (Calle Campos Elíseos y Jorge Eliot) stands the Arbol de la Noche Triste ("Tree of the Sad Night"), recently damaged by fire, an ahuehuete (swamp cypress) under which Cortés is said to have lamented his defeat of June 30th 1520 when the Aztecs drove him and his troops temporarily out of Tehochtitlán.