Click to Enlarge map     The J. Disturnell map, dated 1847,  was the map used to adjudicate the conclusion of the Mexican American War. It shows the territories once owned by Mexico before being annexed to the United States. In one location there is a citation reading "Ancient home of the Aztecs." Could this the original site of Aztlán?   This map shows the approximate location and size of Lake Cahuilla, a fresh water lake that stretched from present day Indio, California south to beyond Mexicali, Mexico.  According to Dr. Philip J. Wilke’s Doctoral Dissertation “Late Prehistoric Human Ecology at Lake Cahuilla, Coachella Valley, California,” Lake Cahuilla was filled with water in three historic periods: from 300 A.D. to 600 A.D., from 900 A.D. to 1200 A.D. and lastly from 1350 A.D. to 1500 A.D. The drying up of the lake at about 1200 A.D. would coincide with the date given for the trek from Aztlán south to the Valley of Mexico. The present day Salton Sea was created in 1905 when the Colorado River overflowed and filled the dry lake bed with water.   The Nuevo Mapa de la America Septentrional (1768) shows Lake Teguayo situated to the northeast of present day Mexico City. The citation on the map reads, "From the borders of this lake the Mexica people went forth to build their empire." Could Lake Teguayo and Aztlán be one and the same?   Located approximately 130 miles northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Chaco Canyon was settled by the Anazasi people as early 700 A.D.  They began building large four story structures in 900A.D. Although not containing the lake, seven caves and herons alluded to in the classic description of Aztlán, some archeologists do not rule out the possibility that some of the Anazasi people may have migrated South to the Valley of Mexico.