The Chapultepec aqueduct (in Spanish: acueducto de Chapultepec) was built to provide potable water to Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City. Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Triple Aztec Alliance empire (formed in 1428 and ruled by the Mexica, the empire joined together the three Nashua states of Tenochtitlan, Texacoco, and Tlacopan) [1] . This fresh water was transported from the Chapultepec springs. [2] Two aqueducts following the same route from the springs were built by the Aztecs during the 15th century, the first destroyed by flooding and the second by the Spanish. After the Spanish conquest a colonial aqueduct was built, the ruins of which are located near Metro Sevilla. [3]
The water level under Tenochtitlan was 10-11 feet below the city. However, it was not a viable source of freshwater as the water retrieved was brackish. [4] Shallow wells were constructed, and the water retrieved was used for household work. Construction of an aqueduct that brought fresh water, suitable for cooking and drinking, from Chapultepec springs to Tenochtitlan began in 1418. [5] Building relied on mud and plant material to create the foundation, which rested on artificial islands that were spread 3 to 4 meters apart. [5] Mounds consisting of mud were constructed on these islands and driven through with a wooden stake for support. The top of each mound had a hollowed out trough lined with compacted clay, and hollowed out logs were placed in the bottom of the flow path to bridge gaps between the islands. A wooden plank walkway flanked the aqueduct, making it easily accessible and a method of transportation from the city to the outlying areas. [6] Once the water reached the city, it was delivered to small reservoirs and select households through a network of canals that extended in the four cardinal directions and branched off to individual streets. [7]
Despite its relative longevity, the composition of the aqueduct could not withstand the forces of nature. [5] Erosion weathered away the compacted clay, and in 1449, heavy rains triggered a flood that destroyed the aqueduct and effectively shut down Tenochtitlan for weeks. [8]
After the destruction of the original aqueduct, the king of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl, ordered the construction of another water system using sturdier materials following the same route as the original. [9] This aqueduct consisted of two mortar lined troughs made of stone masonry. The addition of the second trough allowed for water to be diverted to the second pipe when maintenance had to be performed on the other. This allowed for a continuous supply of fresh water to be delivered to the city. [10] Like the original aqueduct, the second rested on a chain of artificial islands. The pipes were secured to the islands by wood pilings attached to a foundation of sand, lime, and rock. [5] The aqueduct was constructed using wood, carved stone, and compacted soil, with portions made of hollowed logs, allowing canoes to travel underneath. [11]
After his arrival in the Aztec empire, Hernán Cortés discovered the economic and political importance of the Chapultepec aqueduct. He took advantage of the city's dependence on the aqueduct and blocked the fresh water supply, eventually destroying it. Shortly after the Spanish conquest, he set about dividing the land among the conquistadors. He wanted to take the forest of Chapultepec for himself, but Charles V, King of Spain, denied his request and decreed that the springs were needed to provide the people with potable water and were thereby the property of the city of Tenochtitlan. [5] Construction of a new aqueduct started under the reigning Viceroy Fernando de Alencastre, 1st Duke of Linares (1711-1716). The structure became known under another name as the Aqueduct of Belen, named after an old Belen convent it passed by. [12] Built along the same path as the Aztec engineered aqueducts, it was constructed using Roman architecture, reflected in its 904 arches. In completion, it reached a total length of 4663 varas, roughly 4 kilometers. In conquest times, the aqueduct supplied the city with the majority of its freshwater, however, waterborne illness was a concern. In an effort to reduce the possibility of external contamination, iron and lead pipes were installed to replace the open troughs during the 19th Century. [3] These shielded the water from air and outside contaminants but did not decrease the number of pathogen related illnesses and death. [13]
Located on Chapultepec Avenue near Metro Sevilla, a small section, about twenty-two arches long, still survives today. [3] Also standing today are two fountains associated with the aqueduct. The first is found wedged between Chapultepec Park and Metro Chapultepec. Constructed by the viceroy Agustín de Ahumada, this fountain was designed to divert a water to this section of the city. It also served a decorative and historical purpose. However, it is no longer in its original location: it was restored, enlarged and moved to its current location by Roberto Alvarez Espinoza in 1921. [14] This fountain's original place was in the Chapultepec Forest [15] . The second fountain, Salto del Agua, was built at the intersection of Eje Central and Arcos de Belen Street, where the historic center meets Colonia Doctores and Colonia Obrera. While it is at the original location, it is not the original fountain. It had deteriorated badly, and a reproduction was made by Guillermo Ruiz. The original is on display at the Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán. There was a 3rd fountain as faraway as La Merced on the other side of the Centro Histórico but this one was entirely demolished at the end of the 19th century. [16]
Moctezuma I, also known as Moteuczomatzin Ilhuicamina, Huehuemoteuczoma or Montezuma I, was the second Aztec emperor and fifth king of Tenochtitlan. During his reign, the Aztec Empire was consolidated, major expansion was undertaken, and Tenochtitlan started becoming the dominant partner of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Often mistaken for his popular descendant, Moctezuma II, Moctezuma I greatly contributed to the famed Aztec Empire that thrived until Spanish arrival, and he ruled over a period of peace from 1440 to 1453. Moctezuma brought social, economical, and political reform to strengthen Aztec rule, and Tenochtitlan benefited from relations with other cities.
Tenochtitlan, also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican altepetl in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city. The city was built on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it was captured by the Tlaxcaltec and the Spanish in 1521.
Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over 686 hectares. Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is as an ecological space in Greater Mexico City. It is considered the first and most important of Mexico City's "lungs".
The history of Mexico City stretches back to its founding ca. 1325 CE as the Mexica city-state of Tenochtitlan, which evolved into the senior partner of the Aztec Triple Alliance that dominated central Mexico immediately prior to the Spanish conquest of 1519–1521. At its height, Tenochtitlan had enormous temples and palaces, a huge ceremonial center, and residences of political, religious, military, and merchants. Its population was estimated at least 100,000 and perhaps as high as 200,000 in 1519 when the Spaniards first saw it. During the final stage of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish forces and their indigenous allies besieged and razed Tenochtitlan. Because it was strategically and politically important, invader Hernán Cortés founded the Spanish colonial capital of Mexico City on its ruins, becoming the center of Spanish colonial power. Following Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico City became the capital of the sovereign nation, remaining its largest and most important city to the present day.
Miguel Hidalgo is a borough (alcaldía) in western Mexico City, it encompasses the historic areas of Tacuba, Chapultepec and Tacubaya along with a number of notable neighborhoods such as Polanco and Lomas de Chapultepec. With landmarks such as Chapultepec Park and the Museo Nacional de Antropología, it is the second most visited borough in Mexico City after Cuauhtémoc where the historic center of Mexico City is located. Tacubaya and Tacuba both have long histories as independent settlements and were designated as “Barrios Mágicos” by the city for tourism purposes.
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Lake Texcoco was a natural lake within the Anahuac or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is best known for an island situated on the western side of the lake where the Mexica built the city of Mēxihco Tenōchtitlan, which would later become the capital of the Aztec Empire. After the Spanish conquest, efforts to control flooding led to most of the lake being drained.
Salto del Agua is a metro (subway) station on the Mexico City Metro. It is located in the Cuauhtémoc borough in the center of Mexico City. Since 9 July 2022, the Line 1 station has remained closed modernization work on the tunnel and the line's technical equipment.
Chimalpopoca or Chīmalpopōcatzin (1397–1427) was the third Emperor of Tenochtitlan (1417–1427).
The Valley of Mexico, sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec Empire. The valley used to contain five interconnected lakes called Lake Zumpango, Lake Xaltocan, Lake Xochimilco, Lake Chalco and the largest, Lake Texcoco, covering about 1,500 square kilometers (580 sq mi) of the valley floor. When the Spaniards arrived in the Valley of Mexico, it had one of the highest population concentrations in the world with about one million people. After the conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Spaniards rebuilt the largest and most dominant city, Mēxihco Tenōchtitlan, renaming it Ciudad de México and over time began to drain the lakes' waters to control flooding.
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The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mēxihcah.
Don Melchor Portocarrero y Lasso de la Vega, 3rd Count of Monclova was viceroy of New Spain from November 30, 1686 to November 19, 1688 and viceroy of Peru from August 1689 to 1705.
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Tlatelolco was a pre-Columbian altepetl, or city-state, in the Valley of Mexico. Its inhabitants, known as the Tlatelolca, were part of the Mexica, a Nahuatl-speaking people who arrived in what is now central Mexico in the 13th century. The Mexica settled on an island in Lake Texcoco and founded the altepetl of Mexico-Tenochtitlan on the southern portion of the island. In 1337, a group of dissident Mexica broke away from the Tenochca leadership in Tenochtitlan and founded Mexico-Tlatelolco on the northern portion of the island. Tenochtitlan was closely tied with its sister city, which was largely dependent on the market of Tlatelolco, the most important site of commerce in the area.
An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In modern engineering, the term aqueduct is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. The term aqueduct also often refers specifically to a bridge carrying an artificial watercourse. Aqueducts were used in ancient Greece, ancient Near East, and ancient Rome. The simplest aqueducts are small ditches cut into the earth. Much larger channels may be used in modern aqueducts. Aqueducts sometimes run for some or all of their path through tunnels constructed underground. Modern aqueducts may also use pipelines. Historically, agricultural societies have constructed aqueducts to irrigate crops and supply large cities with drinking water.
Aqueducts are bridges constructed to convey watercourses across gaps such as valleys or ravines. The term aqueduct may also be used to refer to the entire watercourse, as well as the bridge. Large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links for boats or ships. Aqueducts must span a crossing at the same level as the watercourses on each end. The word is derived from the Latin aqua ("water") and ducere, therefore meaning "to lead water". A modern version of an aqueduct is a pipeline bridge. They may take the form of tunnels, networks of surface channels and canals, covered clay pipes or monumental bridges.
The Baths of Chapultepec are a series of pools used from the pre-Columbian period until the beginning of the 20th century, to house the water from the springs of Chapultepec Hill. The springs provided drinking water to Mexico City. Among the remains are the Baths of Moctezuma and the remains of colonial-era structures in Well 5, or Manantial Chico, of Chapultepec.
The environmental history of Latin America has become the focus of a number of scholars, starting in the later years of the twentieth century. But historians earlier than that recognized that the environment played a major role in the region's history. Environmental history more generally has developed as a specialized, yet broad and diverse field. According to one assessment of the field, scholars have mainly been concerned with "three categories of research: colonialism, capitalism, and conservation" and the analysis focuses on narratives of environmental decline. There are several currents within the field. One examines humans within particular ecosystems; another concerns humans’ cultural relationship with nature; and environmental politics and policy. General topics that scholars examine are forestry and deforestation; rural landscapes, especially agro-export industries and ranching; conservation of the environment through protected zones, such as parks and preserves; water issues including irrigation, drought, flooding and its control through dams, urban water supply, use, and waste water. The field often classifies research by geographically, temporally, and thematically. Much of the environmental history of Latin America focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but there is a growing body of research on the first three centuries (1500-1800) of European impact. As the field established itself as a more defined academic pursuit, the journal Environmental History was founded in 1996, as a joint venture of the Forest History Society and the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH). The Latin American and Caribbean Society for Environmental History (SOLCHA) formed in 2004. Standard reference works for Latin American now include a section on environmental history.
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