Mexico City and Cusco. 16th-century perspective views of the major cities of the Aztec and Inca empires, in the period after they were conquered by the Spanish. Mexico City-Tenochtitlan (left), the capital of the Aztec Empire, was built on an island in the centre of a lake in the Valley of Mexico. It was conquered by the Spanish (led by Cortes) in 1521. Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire, was conquered by the Spanish (led by Pizarro) in 1533. This is a 1612 edition of a map first published in volume 1 (1572) of the city atlas 'Civitates orbis terrarum'. This atlas was edited by Georg Braun (c.1540-1622) and largely engraved by Franz Hogenberg.