Did You Know? Oxford University Is Older Than the Aztec Empire!

Did you know that sometimes, history plays these really mind-bending tricks on us when we think about timeframes? Like, you might picture ancient civilizations, full of incredible achievements and rich cultures, as something from a completely different epoch than, say, a famous European university. But here’s a little tidbit that often makes people pause and say, ‘Wait, really?’

Oxford University, that iconic institution known for its ancient spires and centuries of academic excellence, actually started teaching way, way back in the 11th century. We’re talking around 1096, though formal founding dates can be a bit fuzzy. But let’s just say, students were hitting the books there before a lot of other historical things we consider ‘old’ even began.

Now, think about the Aztec Empire. We often imagine them as this grand, powerful civilization from deep antiquity, building those incredible pyramids and cities in Mesoamerica. And they were! But the Aztec Empire, as we commonly know it, truly flourished and rose to prominence much, much later. Their capital city, Tenochtitlan, was founded in 1325, and their empire reached its peak in the 15th and early 16th centuries before the Spanish conquest.

So, if you put those timelines side-by-side, it means that students were studying at Oxford University for over two centuries before the Aztec capital city was even founded! Isn’t that wild? It’s like imagining a medieval European scholar having no idea that, across an ocean they didn’t even know existed, a magnificent empire was slowly starting to bloom, an empire that wouldn’t reach its full glory until centuries after his own lifetime. It just goes to show how intertwined, yet distinct, human history unfolded across different corners of our planet, and how our perception of ‘ancient’ can sometimes be really surprising.