The Canal City: Tenochtitlan's Aqueducts and Flood Control

When Spanish conquistadors first saw Tenochtitlan, they compared it to Venice — a city built on water, crisscrossed by canals, with gardens floating on the lake. But behind that beauty lay an astonishing feat of hydraulic engineering. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the aqueducts, dikes, and causeways that brought fresh water from Chapultepec, kept salt water at bay, and allowed the city to thrive in the middle of Lake Texcoco. They discuss the twin aqueduct system that ensured a constant supply, the 16-kilometer dike built by Nezahualcoyotl, the chinampas that doubled as water purifiers, and the seasonal floods that eventually contributed to the city's vulnerability. Drawing on accounts from Bernal Díaz del Castillo and the Florentine Codex, they reveal how the Mexica turned a swamp into one of the most sophisticated urban water systems in the pre-industrial world. This is the story of Tenochtitlan not just as a city of temples and markets, but as a city of water. #Tenochtitlan #AztecEngineering #Chapultepec #FlorentineCodex #BernalDíaz #Nezahualcoyotl #Aqueducts #Chinampas #LakeTexcoco #Mexica #HydraulicEngineering #Causeways #Albarradón #Nahuatl #Mesoamerica #History #PreColumbian #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo