Learn to speak the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl

Using AI to rewrite and revive Aztec tales

Despite being vanquished by the conquering Spaniards in the 16th century, the Aztecs' culture endured through their descendants and rituals, as well as texts that escaped destruction at the hands of the Europeans. These texts, known as codices and preserved in part by Christian monks, revealed intimate details of life as an Aztec in the Middle Ages. Today, AI programs allow students to learn the Aztec's language, Nahuatl, further preserving their heritage.

Play a game inspired by Aztec and Mayan mythology

This free online game, Descent of the Serpent, guides players through Mesoamerican myths as they challenge the god Tezcatlipoca. Along the way, it introduces monuments and artifacts with short explanations of their meaning in Aztec and Mayan cultures.

The Aztec Empire began as a three-city military alliance

The Aztec Empire emerged in 1428 when Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan formed the Triple Alliance, combining military power and tribute networks. This pact transformed the three city-states into a dominant regional empire that rapidly expanded across central Mexico.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The Valley of Mexico sits over 7,000 feet above sea level

Once dominated by the shallow waters of Lake Texcoco, the high-altitude Valley of Mexico—surrounded by volcanic peaks—was home to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. This resource breaks down the region’s unique geography and why it became a cradle of Mesoamerican civilization.

See how the elite warriors of the Aztec Empire trained

This video explores the Aztec military’s elite Eagle and Jaguar warriors, known for their courage and combat skills, and highlights their rigorous training regimen. It concludes with a workout routine modeled on their methods.

The Aztecs worshipped a vast pantheon of more than 200 gods

This detailed visualization breaks down how Aztec deities were identified through symbolic cues—colors, garments, poses, and objects—each reflecting specific powers and mythologies. It highlights fearsome figures like Tlaltecuhtli, the earth monster depicted with a gaping maw, said to devour the sun each night.

Teotihuacán was already ancient when the Aztecs encountered it

By the time the Mexica reached Teotihuacán, the vast city had been abandoned for centuries. First settled around 400 BCE, the inhabitants developed monumental temples, canals, and a carefully planned urban grid centered on the Avenue of the Dead.

The chemistry of ancient tacos

This 16-minute podcast explores the chemistry of Mesoamerica's corn tortillas, which involve a 3,500-year-old chemical process called nixtamalization that releases vitamins, including niacin, one of the essential B vitamins. This process also makes the tortillas softer and more delicious. Corn tortillas were a staple in Mesoamerica, and the archaeologist interviewed in this podcast argues cultures like the Aztecs and Maya wouldn't have thrived without nixtamalization.

See a day in the life of an Aztec midwife

This illustrated story follows Xoquauhtli, a midwife in the Aztec Empire, as she juggles childbirth duties during the festival of Teteoinnan, navigating the tension between professional responsibility and participation in the empire’s religious ceremonies, including ritual sacrifice.

Ready to try reading some Maya hieroglyphics?

The Mayan hieroglyphic script was the only true writing system developed in the Americas prior to European colonization. Examples of the millennia-old script have been discovered on stone pillars, pottery, and texts known as codices. Here’s a Maya writing system study guide for the high achievers among us.

An Aztec skull whistle discovered in the 1990s was mistaken for a toy

In the late 1990s, archaeologists unearthed a sacrificed man clutching two skull-shaped clay whistles at a Mexico City temple to the wind god Ehecatl (eh-HEH-kahtl). Initially dismissed as toys, the instruments produce a scream-like sound that modern brain scans show triggers fear and urgency responses in listeners. This podcast explores the discovery.

Discover the deep history of Indigenous Hand Talk

This video explores Plains Indian Sign Language, part of a broader system known as Hand Talk that dates back centuries. It traces regional variations across North America—and how residential schools worked to suppress its use.

How the great city of Cusco came to be, according to the Inca

The chronicler Inka Garcilaso de la Vega recorded the origin story of the Inka (also spelled Inca) and the founding of Cusco, the capital of the society's great empire. Listen to the Inca origin story in this 4-minute video narrated by a child.

The global practice of public speaking

The epic "Gilgamesh and Aga," which dates back to 1900-1600 BCE, features a speech by the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh in which he tries to convince his city's all-male assembly to agree to fight an invading army. Surviving records indicate many ancient cultures, including those in China, India, and North America, had rich public speaking traditions, at least some of which survived time and colonization.

Mezcal is a handcrafted spirit made by Indigenous producers in Oaxaca

Unlike tequila, mezcal can be made from dozens of agave varieties and is traditionally produced by small-scale families in Oaxaca using stone pits and clay pots. The spirit's rising popularity in US bars has brought both economic opportunity to producing communities.

There's no right way to say 'taco'

While Americans ("tah-co") and Brits ("tack-oh") might argue about the correct pronunciation, both are understood in Spanish-speaking countries. Linguists note that the word's pronunciation is ever-evolving and informed by various cultural, psychological, and historical factors.

Twelve centuries of Roman history in 20 minutes

The Roman Empire may have been the world's first example of globalization, covering thousands of miles and crossing language barriers armed with Latin and short swords. Its legacy is nearly unparalleled in contemporary Europe, with nearly 50 Romance languages deriving from Latin.

Learn how Mexico’s anti-slavery stance shaped the US–Texas conflict

Historian Alice Baumgartner explores how Mexico’s abolition of slavery clashed with Anglo settlers' ambitions in Texas. The episode reveals how enslaved people fled south to freedom, reshaping the politics that led to Texas independence and the Mexican-American War.

Essential Catalan phrases you’ll need in Barcelona

When you go to a restaurant in Barcelona, you’ll probably get offered a menu in three languages: Spanish, English and Catalan. Catalan is one of the four official languages of Spain and the primary language schoolchildren learn in Barcelona. The language has become a source of pride and unity throughout the Catalonia region. So, here are some phrases you might hear and want to use in Barcelona.

Making sense of Mexico City's traffic honks and horns

A car's horn makes just one sound, but somehow, drivers across the world manage to use the monotone for a surprising variety of purposes. This audio-inflected essay takes readers into the nuanced horns of Mexico City's famously congested traffic, providing a "claxonomy" (taxonomy + claxones, or horns) of its drivers' honks.

James Madison spoke six languages

James Madison was competent in six languages: Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. This shaped his classical education and informed his political philosophy. He later also studied Hebrew at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton).

Explore Anthropic Academy, which provides courses on using Claude

The online courses include Claude Code in Action, which teaches software developers how to integrate Claude Code into existing workflows; Claude 101, to learn how Claude can be used to complete everyday tasks; and an AI Fluency series to help educators, instructional designers, and students learn to apply AI in academic settings.

Noam Chomsky believed it might be possible to communicate with aliens

The father of modern linguistics argued that there is a genetic component to language, and that the ability to acquire and comprehend language is innate. If aliens existed, he believed they could potentially observe the same "universal grammar" rules as humans.

Improve your typing speed by retyping classic literature

Why practice with nonsense letters and syllables when you can retype full books you always wanted to read, from Jane Austen and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to George Orwell and W.E.B. duBois. And it's free.

Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Wappo people

Before the wineries, Napa was home to several Indigenous tribes, collectively called the Onasatis or Wappo, who lived and hunted on the land for generations before Spanish missionaries and settlers arrived. Some of their practices, like controlled burns of the dry brush, helped shape the fertility of the land for future agriculture.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.