Huehuetoca drainage (Nochistongo tunnel and cut)
Desagüe de Huehuetoca (túnel y tajo de Nochistongo)
- Date
- 1607-1609 · confidence high
- Place
- Huehuetoca, State of Mexico, Mexico
- Credited to
- Enrico Martínez (Heinrich Martin)
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A hydraulic engineering work that diverted the rivers of the northern Valley of Mexico out of the basin to protect the capital from floods after the one in 1604. A tunnel of about 6.5 km later became a great open cut.
The original tunnel silted up and partly collapsed; the open cut was completed in 1789. Enrico Martínez was also a cosmographer and printer.
What it led to
- Progressive drying of lakes Texcoco and Zumpango
- A work continued for centuries (Nochistongo Cut, 1789)
- Transformation of the lake landscape of old Tenochtitlan