Aztec Floating Gardens (Chinampa)

Timeline

1. 1000–1200Xochimilco · XochimilcoResidents of the Xochimilco lake bay fixed reed mats with wooden stakes and layered lakebed silt to form stable farmland; a canal network provided irrigation and transport, allowing year-round cultivation of maize, beans, chili peppers, and flowers, providing a prototype for later Aztec chinampa technology.
2. 1251–1260Lake Texcoco basin · Lake TexcocoIn the 1250s, the Mexica (Aztec ancestors), expelled from Chapultepec, moved to the west shore of Lake Texcoco and built chinampas on a large scale to achieve food self-sufficiency; the gardens used willows to protect banks and mud to enrich fields, yielding up to seven harvests a year, laying the agricultural foundation for the later founding of Tenochtitlan.
3. 1258–1300Around Tenochtitlan · TenochtitlanHigh chinampa yields allowed the Mexica city-state to collect grain tribute from vassals and sustain priestly and warrior classes; garden produce was transported by canal into the lake markets, forming an economic model tightly linking lake-field agriculture with urban commerce, becoming the food backing for Aztec imperial expansion.