Where the Water Flowed

Mexico City's Chapultepec Avenue is a broad and busy thoroughfare... eight lanes of traffic plus two bike lanes.

As the name implies, it makes a beeline to the hill that the Aztecs called Chapultepec (Grasshopper Hill).  Today that hill is located within Mexico City's largest park, and it is crowned by historic Chapultepec Castle.

In the days of the Aztecs much of the valley where Mexico City stands today was covered by a shallow lake,  It was on an island in that lake where the Aztecs built their capital of Tenochtitlan.  Even though the great city was surrounded by water, the lake was brackish, and its water was not potable.  To supply the population with drinking water, the Aztecs built an aqueduct that extended more than two miles from natural springs at Grasshopper Hill to Tenochtitlan.

When the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés laid siege to Tenochtitlan, he had the aqueduct destroyed so as to deprive the Aztecs of water.  During the colonial period, a new aqueduct was built to supply Mexico City, which was built upon the foundations of the demolished Aztec capital.  That aqueduct ran where Chapultepec Avenue is today.   A small portion of the colonial aqueduct... twenty-two arches out of the original 904... still stands in the middle of the thoroughfare.  In recent years landscaping has been added along the avenue, and a walkway placed by the ruins so that you can take a closer look without risking your life in the traffic.

A view of four of Mexico City's tallest skyscrapers as seen from Chaputepec Avenue, where the city's water used to flow.