| Together, the complex of settlements the city, the chinampa villages, and the settlements along the lakeshore plain must have appeared from the air as one gigantic settlement. |
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| This system of farming, called chinampa, was first applied to Lake Chalco. |
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| The lake provides the chinampa with moisture laden with decomposing organic wastes that irrigate and fertilize the island's soil, supporting an intensive and highly productive form of cultivation. |
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| By a system of dikes and sluice gates the Aztec even managed to convert a portion of saline Lake Texcoco, the largest and lowest lake in the basin, to a freshwater bay for further chinampa colonization. |
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| It was originally located on two small islands in Lake Texcoco, but it gradually spread into the surrounding lake by a process, first of chinampa construction, then of consolidation. |
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| There is even evidence that many chinampa cultivators, in response to the expanded market, were shifting from the production of staple crops to truck gardening. |
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| These chinampa towns retained a strong indigenous character and Indians continued to hold the majority of that land, despite its closeness to the Spanish capital. |
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