Mainland Gardens: Garden Design in the Americas

We might expect to be able now to continue the parallel with European development; and as Mexico in 1519 was relatively in the same stage as, say, Florence in 1450, it would not be unreasonable to look for the appearance of mainland gardens, flat and relatively treeless, considerably larger than Chinampas certainly, but still showing signs of their limitation by water. Instead, if the conquistadores are to be believed, they found something very different. They reported that the palace gardens of the native kings of Mexico were large and luxurious. The palace of Tezcuco itself was surrounded by groves and pleasure gardens and the neighbouring hill of Tezcotzuko was elaborately terraced. The principal palace of Montezuma was built on a porphyry hill and surrounded by miles of gardens. There were aviaries and menageries, sweet-scented groves and shrubberies, gardens of medicinal herbs, fountains, and ornamental ponds surrounded by tessellated marble pavements `overhung by light and fanciful pavilions, that admitted the perfumed breezes of the gardens, and offered a grateful shelter to the monarch and his mistresses in the heat of summer'. The summit of the hill was reached by five hundred and ' There are also floating gardens in Kashmir. Twenty steps carved out of solid porphyry which led to an artificial lake fed by an aqueduct several miles in length. In the centre of the lake stood a monumental stone carved with an account of the achievements of the garden's creator, the Tezcucan King Nezahualcoyotl. On the lower levels there were three other lakes in each of which stood a marble statue of a woman, the personification of one of the three principal divisions of the empire. From these ornamental lakes `the water was distributed in numerous channels through the gardens, or was made to tumble over the rocks in cascades, shedding refreshing dews on the flowers and odoriferous shrubs below'.