Building Chinampas

The process of making chinampas was simple. First, canals were cut through the marshes and swamps. the farmer then marked out a square plot, using mud and plants to form walls to hold back the water. mud was then placed on mats made from reeds, which lined the bottom of the plot.

Willow trees were planted along the walls of the plot. When the trees took root, they acted like anchors that kept the walls of the chinampas in place. At that point, the chinampa could be used for planting maize.

The use of chinampas did not die out with the end of the Aztec Empire. they are still used today in a region southeast of mexico city, particularly near a lake called Xochi-milco. farmers grow maize, flowers, and vegetables on their island farms.

The gardens of Xochimilco are all that remain of the Aztec island farms known as chinampas.

From its source to their farms. They also used fertilizers (chemicals that help crops grow). The Aztecs also built raised platforms of soil, called terraces, to grow food on hillsides. Their most original idea, however, was their island farms, chinampas.

Planting, weeding, and harvesting maize on a chinampa was hard work. Everyone in a farming family took part in the work. Once the corn was harvested, each ear of maize had to be shucked (the outer husk pulled off) and the kernels removed from the cob. The corn was then dried and stored. Although the corn could be used as dried kernels, it was normally made into a dough, which was used to make porridge or tortillas. Farmers often paid their taxes in the form of fresh or dried corn.

Extra food could be traded in the town market. Cloth, leather, wooden items, and any other crafts could also be traded in the marketplace. The Aztecs had no coins or paper money, but they did use cacao beans as a form or currency.

Cacao beans were precious to the Aztecs, who used them to make chocolate. The beans were small and portable. A person could easily carry a pouch with several hundred cacao beans and use them to buy goods or services anywhere in the Aztec Empire. Cacao beans were often used in local markets to buy tools, clothes, leather for sandals, and jewelry. Gold, silver, and precious stones were expensive and cost plenty of beans.

The two largest markets were in Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. These were held outdoors in specific market areas. Market day was a celebration of food, crafts, and color. People from every calpulli and from neighboring towns went to these markets to buy or trade goods. This was a place where a farmer could trade avocados for a length of rope or tomatoes for an axe head. There was cloth, leather, jewelry, pottery, carvings of stone and wood—any item an Aztec farmer or craftsmen produced was for sale.

The market was a place for socializing, too. The market at Tlate-lolco often had a crowd as large as 25,000. The sellers, often professional market women, laid out their goods on mats on the ground. Shoppers moved from vendor to vendor, looking for the food or goods they needed.