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Aztecs' Capital, Tenochtitla

ake. But, the high mountains that create the central valley do not close it off entirely--it is, in fact, easily accessible from several directions. And, the salt lake, though it is useless for defense (as the Aztecs found out) and as a water source, still provides a large number of fish and wild fowl. Other wild animals in the area have been somewhat reduced by the presence of the Aztecs for so many years, but there is still potential hunting farther away from the city. The main attraction of the site, of course, is the permanent supply of fresh water. For this there are the 4 fresh water lagoons, 2 at the northwest and 2 at the south. In addition, there is the Acolman River which, though it is a somewhat sluggish stream, drains the very fertile Teotihuacßn valley. In addition, "during the rainy season thick alluvial deposits, ideal for [basic] agriculture, [are] washed down along the lake shore" (Crow 49).

The Aztecs have also done an excellent job of reclaiming the marshes that surround Lake Texcoco. The people even addressed the shortage of good land in the region by dredging fertile soil from the bottoms of the lakes and placing the earth on "chimpanas," "floating rafts of reeds and fibrous roots firmly tied together and allowed to float over the lake surfaces (Crow 55). They have also managed to develop a very "intricate canal system" for the transport of goods and people," irrigation and terracing for farming, an excellent aqueduct that supplies fresh water from the western valley, and a dike that holds back the water of Lake Texcoco (Kandell 125). Though all this "demanded great expense of labour," the Aztecs "made full use of all the possibilities which Tenochtitlan contained" (Katz 137). Since, as we have seen, this land has numer

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Aztecs' Capital, Tenochtitla. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:26, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704665.html