Texcotzingo (alternatively, Tetzcotzingo) is claimed to be one of the first extant

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

s in the Americas, along with Moctezuma’s gardens in Huastepec. The gardens and archaeological site are located roughly 20 miles northeast of central

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Texcotzingo is adjacent to the Aztec capital city of Texcoco and acted as the summer imperial

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s, resplendent in all the royal trappings of the time, including imperial and courtly residences and fantastic waterworks. Tetzcotzingo however should also be seen as a hedonist/sacred space, agricultural space, political statement or emblem, performance space, and earthworks.Avilés (2006) Texcotzingo Second Level View

History

Texcotzingo was designed and created by

Nezahualcoyotl Nezahualcoyotl may refer to: * Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani), the ruler of Texcoco * Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, a city in the State of Mexico * Nezahualcóyotl metro station, in Mexico City * The Nezahualcóyotl Award, a literary prize in Mexico * Nezah ...

, the then-ruler of Texcoco, in the 15th century. These imperial gardens were used to collect and display plant and animal specimens, aiming towards an encyclopedic understanding of the flora and fauna of the whole of the Aztec empire, as well as the cultivation of medicinal plants. They were conceived as a place for sensual gratification on one hand and as a recreation of paradise on the other. Dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc, (He Who Makes the Plants Spring Up), Texcotzingo was designed by incorporating

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

myths through sculpture depicting gods and observances of sacred numbers (such as the number 52). New hydraulic projects and terrace gardens transformed the previously un-arable land into lush edible gardens containing the three ubiquitous staples of the Americas:

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, beans, and squash. Waterways were also used to connect pools imbued with historical and mythical significance through monolithic sculptures and symbolic representations, therefore reasserting the Aztec's empire connection to mythic cosmographies and preceding empires. One clear example is a bath/pool flanked by three frogs representing the three city states of

Tenochitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...

, Texcoco and

Tlacopan Tlacopan, also called Tacuba, was a Tepanec / Mexica altepetl on the western shore of Lake Texcoco. The site is today the neighborhood of Tacuba, in Mexico City. Etymology The name comes from Classical Nahuatl ''tlacōtl'', "stem" or "rod" and ...

, the cities which made up the

Aztec Triple Alliance The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, �jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled that area in and around the Valley of Mexico ...

. The baths in the Texcotzingo site were carved from solid rock and were surrounded by lush gardens and waterworks. Aesthetic manifestations of practiced myths, vital to Aztec culture, also occupied an important place at Texcotzingo, with spaces designed for the performance of poetry, singing, dancing and oration. This transformation of the mountain of Texcotzingo into art, and the perception that the mountain itself was art, in that it held special significance (mythical or otherwise) in pre-Columbian culture, classifies Texcotzingo as an earthwork. There is also a tangible connection between the ideas of art, culture and nature manifested in rocks and sculptures, existing flora and plantings, etc. in the design of Texcotzingo.

Notes

References

* * {{refend Aztec sites Texcoco (altepetl) Botanical gardens in Mexico Gardens in Mexico Archaeological sites in Mexico Natural history of the State of Mexico Protected areas of the State of Mexico 15th-century establishments in the Aztec civilization