What was the name of the mythical homeland of the Aztecs? The mythical homeland was Aztlan.
Aztlan appears in colonial-period Nahua and Mexica accounts as the ancestral place from which the peoples who became the Aztecs migrated toward central Mexico. The name “Aztec” derives from Nahuatl aztecah, meaning people from Aztlan, although the Mexica later used a different identity for themselves.
Legends describe Aztlan in varying ways, sometimes as an island or a place of abundance and sometimes as a homeland under oppressive rulers. Huitzilopochtli is said to have commanded the Mexica to leave and guided them on their long journey. Their migration eventually led to Lake Texcoco and the founding of Tenochtitlan.
Aztlan’s precise location remains unknown and debated. Suggestions have included northwestern Mexico, the Mexican state of Nayarit, and parts of the southwestern United States. Tenochtitlan was not the homeland; it was the later capital established after the migration. Tula and Cholula were important central Mexican places, but neither was the legendary point of origin.