An adventure to the mysterious World of the Aztecs: The captivating chinampas

The Captivating Chinampas

It was a cool new day in the Mysterious city of Tenochtitlan. I was walking near the beautiful, fasinating bay of Lake Xochimilco. I was shocked at how breath-taking it looked. The scenery was so beautiful and it was like a perfect piece of art. Soon, something caught my eye. It was these little, boat-like shaped, brown, large floating crops. The crops looked so tall, green and gigantic. At a distance, you could see an Aztec Farmer on the floating crops and what looked like he was checking on them. There was also another Aztec Farmer on a small and brown boat. This is something you could never see in the modern world! I mean, floating crops! No one would have thought of that! I finally learnt that these floating crops were called Chinampas. These Chinampas were built for agricultural purposes. They were man-made raised fields which were used for cultivation. They covered large areas of Xochimilco and tremendously raised the agricultural space of the land. Each chinampas were very alike in size and direction. They were made by being attached into marshy areas using long sticks. Each Chinampas were enclosed by fences made of twisted branches that slowly became much more solid overtime as the branches gathered up lots of mud and vegetation. The wall was made stronger by Aztec Farmers planting willow trees at regular gaps. The area of the Chinampas that were meant for planting were filled up with sediment. Between each Chinampa there was a gap that gave canoes access. The water was supplied by a mixture of natural springs and man-made constructions, like aqueducts. The type of crops that were growing in the planting area were beans, corn, squash, tomatoes and peppers. Chinampas produce up to seven crops per year. This seemed to be a very productive and advanced idea for agriculture. Compared to how people grow crops in modern days and in New Zealand, these Chinampas is definitely a much faster way to grow crops and a very smart way too. This is because when farmers now adays seem to have a large process to grow crops whereelse with the Chinampas you could just built the Chinampas first and then supply the water which makes it easier. It might not be eay at first for building the Chinampas but overtime it will get easier because once you get everything working, the Chinampas crops will start growing. But, the process nowadays seems to always be difficult and the process just makes it hard for the farmers to cope. These Chinampas can also be a more efficient way to grow crops as well. How I wish these Chinampas existed in Modern day!!!