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WonderWetland agriculture fact

Chinampas, the so-called floating gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City, are fixed fields raised from lake mud and plant matter. Canals run between them, and rows of ahuejote willows along their edges hold the banks in place.

Chinampa

FoodCultureHistory

The story behind the card

Farmers built chinampas by staking out a plot in a shallow lake, piling up layers of mud and rotting vegetation, and planting willows whose roots anchor the sides. Mud dredged from the canals keeps the beds fertile, and the canals double as waterways for canoes. The technique is older than the Aztec Empire, but the Aztecs expanded it greatly around their capital, Tenochtitlan, helping to feed a city of perhaps 200,000 people or more. Xochimilco's canals and chinampas became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987; today urban growth, pollution and falling water levels threaten the farmers who still work them.

Türkçe oku
“Yüzen bahçeler” diye bilinen chinampalar, Meksiko'daki Xochimilco'da göl çamuru ve bitki artıklarıyla yükseltilmiş, yerinden oynamayan tarlalardır. Aralarından kanallar geçer; kenarlarına sıra sıra dikilen ahuejote söğütleri kıyıların dağılmasını önler.

Çiftçiler chinampa yapmak için sığ gölde bir parseli kazıklarla çevirir, üst üste çamur ve çürüyen bitki katmanları yığar, kenarlara kökleriyle toprağı tutan söğütler dikerdi. Kanallardan çıkarılan çamur tarlaları verimli tutar; kanallar aynı zamanda kanoların dolaştığı su yollarıdır. Teknik Aztek İmparatorluğu'ndan daha eskidir, ama Aztekler onu başkentleri Tenochtitlan'ın çevresinde büyük ölçüde yaydı ve belki 200.000'i aşkın nüfuslu bu kentin beslenmesine katkı sağladı. Xochimilco'nun kanalları ve chinampaları 1987'de UNESCO Dünya Mirası alanının bir parçası oldu. Bugün kentleşme, kirlilik ve düşen su seviyesi, bu tarlaları hâlâ işleyen çiftçileri zor durumda bırakıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Chinampa
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