The Aztecs were a civilisation who lived in Central Mexico from 1300 to 1521. History has painted the Aztecs as a strange civilisation, one capable of great intelligence and architectural marvels, who simultaneously worshipped a bunch of strange, angry gods and routinely ritually sacrificed each other to them. A lot of our beliefs about the Aztecs trace back to 1519 and the Spanish conquerors of the time and although we accept that human sacrifice was a part of their culture and religion, the extent of it is still debated today. The fall of the Aztec Empire and our subsequent beliefs on human sacrifice in their culture, can be traced back to 1519 and the expedition of Hernán Cortés that culminated in the conquest of the capital Tenochtitlan and the fall of the Aztec Empire by 1521. Upon arrival in Tenochtitlan, Cortes reported discoveries of the practice of human sacrifice, horrifying the general public and lending credence to the conquest.