Chinampa Wet-Floating Field Agriculture

Timeline

1. 1100–1325Xochimilco · Valley of MexicoLake polities of the Valley of Mexico enclosed lakebed silt with wooden fences in shallow water to form cultivable strips, growing vegetables and flowers, laying the technical and ecological foundation for the later Aztec chinampa system.
2. c. 1331–1340Around Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco · Valley of MexicoAfter the Aztecs established their capital, they greatly extended chinampas between islands and the lakeshore to feed the island population, anchoring field ridges with willow stakes and drawing lake water for irrigation, enabling multiple harvests a year with far higher grain yields than surrounding dryland farming.
3. c. 1450–1519Lake-zone agricultural belt of the Valley of Mexico · Valley of MexicoThe imperial administrative system brought chinampa plot allocation, hydraulic maintenance, and tribute collection under unified management, forming continuous belts of floating fields in the valley's lake zones that supplied hundreds of thousands of urban residents and the army, becoming the economic foundation of Aztec state power.