Texcotzingo

Texcotzingo
	Shown within Mexico
Location	Oaxtepec
Coordinates	19°29′49″N 98°49′06″W / 19.49694°N 98.81833°W
History
Builder	Nezahualcoyotl

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

Texcotzingo is adjacent to the Aztec capital city of

Texcoco and acted as the summer imperial gardens, 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.^[1]

History

Texcotzingo was designed and created by

Tlaloc, (He Who Makes the Plants Spring Up), Texcotzingo was designed by incorporating Aztec 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:

Tenochitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan, the cities which made up the Aztec Triple Alliance

. 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

^ Avilés (2006)

References

Avilés, Paul (2006). "Seven Ways of Looking at a Mountain: Tetzcotzingo and the Aztec Garden Tradition". Landscape Journal. 25 (2). Madison:
OCLC 7534225
.

Granziera, Patrizia (Winter 2001). "Concept of the garden in pre-Hispanic Mexico". Garden History. 29 (2). London: Garden History Society (Great Britain): 185–213.
OCLC 199661938
.

[1] Avilés (2006)

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