Texcotzingo

Texcotzingo is a 15th-century Aztec hilltop complex of botanical gardens, baths, and a royal retreat located about 32 km northeast of Mexico City. Designed by the poet-king Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco, it features an ingenious aqueduct system that transported water from a spring near Mount Tlaloc to fill pools and irrigate terraced gardens. Three principal baths represent the capitals of Texcoco, Tula, and Tenayuca, with carved frog statues and depictions of rain deity Tlaloc. Considered possibly the oldest surviving pre-Columbian garden site in the Americas, the lower terraces housed medicinal and ornamental plants gathered from across the Aztec Empire.