The chinampas of the Valley of Mexico, as printed in 1806 and as worked in 2026

The lake gardens that fed Tenochtitlan were still being planted and rowed to market when a Mexican Jesuit in Italian exile described them - plaited willow frames, lake mud, plots about eight perches by three, a hut and a tree on the larger ones, canoes of flowers reaching the capital at sunrise. Two centuries on, the same system is the last lacustrine remnant of Mexico City, still supplying its markets, under pressure from contamination and the city.