The Return of Aztec Floating Farms
11th October 2022
The lacustrine landscape of Mexico Valley was covered with five big lakes: Texcoco, Xaltocan, Zumpango, Chalco and Xochimilco, and very small boggy islands.
To solve their land crisis, archaeological evidence as well as narratives of Spanish colonial writers tell us that the Aztecs came up with a genius plan: the chinampas. They artificially constructed these long, narrow strips of land over shallow lakes by piling earth on reeds and sedges and raising them to the required height. The islands were then anchored to the lake floor by a fence of ahuejote, a native willow tree.
While the Aztecs built Tenochtitlan’s city centre by connecting existing islands via bridges and boardwalks, in areas further from the city centre, such as the Xochimilco lake basin, they used chinampas to create floating gardens that could be used for agriculture, animal rearing, hunting and foraging. The ingenious technique of farming on water allowed the Aztecs to sustain their growing empire.