The Aztec civilization left behind many mysterious buildings and unusual myths. One of them is a legend about strange creatures living on these lands and in the waters of lakes and rivers. We are talking about a cruel creature living in the Lake Texcoco area attacking fishermen or people approaching the shore.
In Aztec mythology, this creature was called Ahuizotl. Several references to it, contained in the Florentine Codex and a bas-relief in the former city of Tenochtitlan, have survived to this day. The images depicted there show a canine animal with a springy long tail and some sort of long spines on its back.
Ahuizotl was relatively small, resembling the size of a dog or coyote. It had an elongated muzzle with sharp fangs, small ears, and fingertips like those of primates. The strangest thing is that the fifth paw was usually extended at the end of its tail. Stories about him tell that Ahuizotl could walk on two or four legs and live both on the lake and on land. All his time he spent near the shore, slightly sticking his mouth out of the water, and waiting for the right catch. This is very similar to the hunting method used by crocodiles.
Could this creature be just a crocodile that attacked local residents Unfortunately, crocodiles were described by the Aztecs as a separate creature (and no less detailed than Ahuizotl), and there are even drawings of them that differ significantly from the images of this finger-shaped dog. Ahuizotl was something else.
It reportedly also had several other features, including being able to perfectly imitate a human voice and use it to bait water. He often imitated the cry of a child. Descriptions of this creature come from the so-called Florentine Codex, developed by the Franciscan monk Bernardino de Sahagun, who undertook extensive work in the 16th century to describe the entire flora and fauna of Mesoamerica. According to the paragraph about this creation:
The Ahuizotli is therefore described as a territorial and highly aggressive animal. He attacks both people on the shore and fishermen in boats and is even capable of overturning them.
The Aztecs described this creature with anxiety and fear, but also with respect. People who met Ahuizotla were automatically sent to the best places in the Kingdom of Death, and only priests could examine the dead. In addition, hunting and damaging these animals was prohibited because they were considered sacred creatures. This is a bit like the crocodile cult known among other people from ancient Egypt.
There is even a story according to which the inhabitants of the Aztec village caught several of these animals and placed them in large vessels of water. However, when the information reached the ruler, they were ordered to release Ahuizotl back to the lake. It was definitely not a mythical creature, but a completely real animal. Hernan Cortez even mentioned him in a letter to the king of Spain.
In subsequent centuries, the mysterious Ahuizotli disappeared without a trace, and there was no mention of him in historical sources.
There is a theory that Ahuizotli simply died out after the destruction of the Aztec empire, because the ban on catching these animals disappeared, and the locals quickly caught those who remained in the lake. Therefore, the truth on this issue remains a mystery.