Editing Lake Texcoco (section)

=== Tenochtitlan ===
{{Main|Tenochtitlan}}
[[File:Painting of Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco on Lake Texcoco (9755215791).jpg|thumb|right|250px|Tenochtitlan and Lake Texcoco in 1519.]]
According to a traditional story, the [[Mexica]] wandered in the deserts of modern Mexico for 100 years before they came to the thick forests of the place now called the Valley of Mexico.

[[Tenochtitlan]] was founded on an [[islet]] in the western part of the lake in the year 1325. Around it, the [[Aztec]]s created a large [[artificial island]] using a system similar to the creation of [[chinampa]]s. To overcome the problems of drinking water, the Aztecs built a system of [[dam]]s to separate the salty waters of the lake from the rain water of the [[effluent]]s.<ref name="Şentürk1994">{{cite book|author=Fuat Şentürk|title=Hydraulics of Dams and Reservoirs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NqzZdytUz3gC&pg=PA6|year=1994|publisher=Water Resources Publication|isbn=978-0-918334-80-0|page=6}}</ref> It also permitted them to control the level of the lake. The city also had an inner system of channels that helped to control the water.

The Aztec ruler [[Ahuitzotl]] attempted to build an aqueduct that would take fresh water from the mainland to the lakes surrounding the Tenochtitlan city. The aqueduct failed, and the city suffered a major flood in 1502.<ref name="Zurita1994">{{cite book|author=Alonso de Zurita|title=Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6vHgQg8osQC&pg=PA304|year=1994|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-2679-1|pages=304–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/6213665/Moctezuma-the-leader-who-lost-an-empire.html | title=Moctezuma: The leader who lost an empire| date=2009-09-21}}</ref>

During [[Hernán Cortés]]'s siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the dams were destroyed, and never rebuilt, so [[flood]]ing became a big problem for the new [[Mexico City]] built over Tenochtitlan.