chinampeca chinampaUna chinampa ( from nahuatl chinamitl, hedge or near canas1 ) It is an ancient Mesoamerican method of agriculture and territorial expansion which, through a kind of rafts covered with soil, were used to grow flowers and vegetables, as well as to expand the territory in the surface of lakes and Lakes of the Valley of Mexico; making a floating city to Mexico-Tenochtitlan. They used them for agriculture and take ownership of other lands.It's a raft of frame made of logs and sticks, sometimes of considerable size, which is deposited topsoil duly selected materials biodegradable such as grass, leaves and shells of different fruits and vegetables, etc. In the chinampa is planted a willow so that their roots grow from water to dry land on the banks of lakes and streams, and then Willow grew, planted various crops which they then harvested.It's a technique started in time of the Toltec, although its maximum development was achieved in the sixteenth century. By 1519, this technique, for example, occupied almost all the Lake Xochimilco, and its combination with other techniques such as irrigation channels and the construction of terraces, allowed to sustain a very dense population.