Lake Texcoco
Lake Texcoco (Spanish: Lago de Texcoco; Nahuatl languages: Tetzco(h)co) was a natural lake within the Anahuac or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is best known for an island situated on the western side of the lake where the Mexica built the city of Mēxihco Tenōchtitlan, which would later become the capital of the Aztec Empire. After the Spanish conquest, efforts to control flooding led to most of the lake being drained.
This article is about the lake. For the pre-Columbian city-state, see Texcoco (altepetl). For the modern municipality and city, see Texcoco, State of Mexico.Lake Texcoco
Central Mexico
2,100 square miles (5,400 km2)
over 500 feet (150 m)
7,349 feet (2,240 m)
Lago de Texcoco
5 June 2022
2469[1]
The entire lake basin is now almost completely occupied by Mexico City, the capital of the present-day nation of Mexico. Drainage of the lake has led to serious ecological and human consequences. The local climate and water availability have changed considerably, contributing to water scarcity in the area; subsequent groundwater extraction leads to land subsidence under much of the city. Native species endemic to the lake region, such as the axolotl, have become severely endangered or extinct due to ecosystem change.[2]
After the cancellation of the Mexico City Texcoco Airport, the government initiated a major restoration project of a significant part of the lake in the form of the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park, 14,000 hectares of public space and ecological restoration.
Geography[edit]
The Valley of Mexico is a basin with an average elevation of 2,236 m (7,336 ft) above mean sea level located in the southern highlands of Mexico's central altiplano. Lake Texcoco formerly extended over a large portion of the southern half of the basin, where it was the largest of an interconnected chain of five major and several smaller lakes (the other main lakes being Lakes Xaltocan, Zumpango, Chalco, and Xochimilco). Much of the lake was fed from groundwater aquifers; fresh water poured in from Lake Chalco and Xochimilco's freshwater springs, and the thermal springs of Zumpango and Xaltocan, as well as some in Texcoco itself, provided saline water.[3] During periods of high water levels—typically after the May-to-October rainy seasons—the lakes were often joined as one body of water, at an average elevation of 2,242 m (7,356 ft) above mean sea level. In the drier winter months the lake system tended to separate into individual bodies of water, a flow that was mitigated by the construction of dikes and causeways in the Late Postclassic period (1200–1521 CE) of Mesoamerican chronology. Lake Texcoco was the lowest-lying of all the lakes, and occupied the minimum elevation in the valley so that water ultimately drained towards it. The Valley of Mexico is a closed or endorheic basin. Because there is no outflow, evapotranspiration is estimated to be 72–79% of precipitation.[4]