WHI-Chap6/21-chinampa system

The chinampa system was the way that the Aztecs farmed in their capital city. Tenochtitlan was a small island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, so it did not have much land to farm on. To create the necessary land, the Mexica dredged rich and fertile much from the lake's bottom and built it up into small plots called chinampas. During the dry season, farmers tapped water to their land from the canals that ran between the plots to the lake. Farmers grew maize, beans, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, and chiles year-round. Because the chinampas were so fertile, cultivators could sometimes grow seven crops a year from their plots.

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T&E p.541