Abstract
In less than 200 years, the Aztec civilization progressed from a nomadic tribe to a highly developed society, producing wonderful architectonic developments and creating an amazing capital city: Mēxihco-Tenochtitlan. This city amazed the Spanish conquerors when they first saw it in 1519 AD. The Aztec produced many art products, like sculptures, paintings, and poetry. They made their capital city very comfortable by means of streets, aqueducts, and water-supply and flood-control works. Water was very important in all aspects of their lives. In their religion, the water god, Tlaloc, had the same level of importance as their most important god called Huitzilopochtli, the Sun god and the so-called left-handed hummingbird. This chapter describes the main hydrologic and hydraulic works of the Aztecs, and it explains the relationship between their water gods and their culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aghajanian A (2007) Chinampas: their role in Aztec empire-building and expansion, Lulu.com, 112 p. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430306815/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER. Accessed 19 Mar 2018
Back W (1978) Archaeology, hydrogeology and hydromythology in the new world. Paper presented at the international symposium on implications of hydrogeology to other earth sciences, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Back W (1981) Hydromythology and ethnohydrology in the new world. Wat Resour Res 17(2):257–287
Biswas AK (1970) History of hydrology. North Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam
Bribiesca-Castrejon JL (1960) Hydrologic history of the Valley of Mexico. Revista Ingenieria Hidraulica 1960:43–61. (In Spanish)
Cartwright M (2017) Aztec Pantheon, https://www.ancient.eu/article/1034/aztec-pantheon/. Accessed 19 Mar 2018
Gwendal Uguen (2018a) https://www.flickr.com/photos/gwendalcentrifugue/8351782692/. Accessed 19 Mar 2018 Free for reproduction
Gwendal Uguen (2018b) https://www.flickr.com/photos/gwendalcentrifugue/7868347290. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Free for reproduction
Historicair (2007) Valley of Mexico circa 1519. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Valley_of_Mexico_c.1519-fr.svg. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Free for reproduction
Misaelos (2008) Vista panoramica desde uno de los baños de Nezahualcoyotl en Texcoco, Estado de México. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ba%C3%B1os_de_Nezahualcoyotl.JPG#filehistory. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Free for reproduction
Museo de la Ciudad de México (2018) Plano de Mexico Tenochtitlan, el valle y los lagos en el siglo XV Luis Covarrubias 1963. Photograph used with permission
Palerm A (1973) Pre-hispanic Hydraulic Works in the Lake System of the Valley of Mexico, SEP-INAH, Mexico City. (In Spanish)
Raynal-Villasenor JA (1986) Flood control works in the Aztec Empire. Proceedings of the Ninth National Congress on Hydraulics, Queretaro, Mexico, pp 639–650, (In Spanish)
Raynal-Villasenor JA (1987) The remarkable hydrologic works of the Aztec civilization. In: Water for the future: hydrology in perspective, IAHS pub. No. 164, pp 3–9
Raynal-Villasenor JA (2018a) Photograph taken across the North-East corner of Mexico City’s Main Square (Zocalo)
Raynal-Villasenor JA (2018b) Photograph taken at Mexico City’s Chapultepec Avenue
Sémhur (2011) Map of Mesoamerican civilizations cultural area. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Mesoamerica_topographic_map-blank.svg. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Free for reproduction
Thelmadatter (2008a) Model of the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/TenochtitlanModel.JPG. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Public domain
Thelmadatter (2008b) Scale models of chinampas used by the Aztecs in the lakes surrounding Tenochititlan on display at the museum of the Templo Mayor. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/ChinampaScaleModel.JPG. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Public domain
Tibon G (1986) The mystery of the foundation of the City of Mexico, lecture given at the Auditorium “Javier Barros Sierra” of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Mexico City, Mexico. (In Spanish)
Toltecayotl.org (2014) Baños de Netzahualcoyotl en Texcoco. http://www.toltecayotl.org/tolteca/index.php/2014-03-30-23-22-05/zonas-arqueologicas/4560-banos-de-nezahualcoyotl-en-texcoco. Accessed 19 Mar 2018. Free for reproduction
UNAM (2012) Great Nahuatl Dictionary [on-line]. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City. In Spanish. http://wwwgdnunammx. Accessed 19 Mar 2018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Raynal-Villasenor, J.A. (2020). Hydrologic and Hydraulic Works of the Aztec Civilization . In: Raynal-Villasenor, J. (eds) Water Resources of Mexico. World Water Resources, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40686-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40686-8_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40685-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-40686-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)