On November 8, 1519, Bernal Diaz del Castillo saw a sight that would remain fixed in his memory for decades to come. The twenty-seven-year-old Spanish soldier already had encountered signs of an ever intensifying urban civilization as he and his fewer than four hundred comrades marched from the humid lowlands of Mexico up into the volcanic highlands. And in a hint of what was to come, he noted "piles of human skulls," arranged in neat rows, atop the provincial temples.
- From The City by Joel Kotkin
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