Lake Xochimilco

Lake Xochimilco, in a detail from the 1847 Bruff/Disturnell map

Lake Xochimilco is an ancient endorheic lake, located in the present-day Borough of Xochimilco in southern México City.

The lake is within the Valley of Mexico hydrological basin, in central México.

History

Geologic

Lake Xochimilco is part of a series of historical lakes, which included:

1. Lake Texcoco — brackish
2. Lake Zumpango
3. Lake Xaltocan
4. Lake Chalco — fresh water

Mesoamerican

These lakes were the home of many Mesoamerican cultures, including the Teotihuacanos, the Toltecs, and the Aztecs.

Due to its shallow waters and the freshwater springs that lined the south shore of the lake, Lake Xochimilco was the center of Chinampa agriculture in the centuries of the pre-Columbian era. This made the region a prime target for the expansionist Aztecs, who obtained control over the lake in a series of campaigns, from circa 1432 until 1440, during the reign of the Aztec Hueyi Tlatoani, Itzcóatl.

Spanish colonial

After the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521, the Spaniards' destruction of the dams and sluice gates in the 1520s, as well as the sharp declines in the native population, led to the near abandonment of the Chinampa gardens.

Colourful trajineras (rafts) on Lake Xochimilco

Present day

The five lakes within the Valley of Mexico have now largely disappeared, drained to reduce flooding. Only the Xochimilco canals remain from the original Lake Xochimilco. Even today, some chinamperos still work their chinampa gardens between the canals.

Xochimilco Lake is part large urban parks for Mexico City, with in-water and on-land recreation. Colourful trajineras (rafts) take groups of people on the remaining canals for pleasure.

Xochimilco Ecological Park and Plant Market was established as a nature reserve and park, and is the largest park in Mexico City after Chapultepec. There is also the thirteen hectare Xochimilco/Cuemanco Plant Market, the largest in Latin America. The market is on chinampa land.

Conservation

The area was declared a biological reserve by the Mexican government in 1984. It became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Lake Xochimilco was the last remaining native habitat for Axolotl, a species of mole salamander endemic to Mexico. Until Lake Chalco was drained, the species had also been present there. Given Lake Xochimilco's present extensively compromised and reduced state, and the accelerating impact of Mexico City's urban growth, as of 2008 Axolotl in the wild are listed as a critically endangered species by the IUCN. In February 2014 it was disclosed that a survey in 2013 had failed to find any remaining specimens in the wild.

See also

• Xochimilco
• Bosque de Nativitas Park, Xochimilco
• Xochimilco Ecological Park and Plant Market