Some communities still dwelling on the ancient eastern shore of Lake Texcoco, like those located in the base of Tláloc Hill, consider the water to be an element that emerges from the depths of the earth to then stream down of the tip of mountains. Geologists consider all the elevations in the terrestrial crust are sculpted by the repetitive trajectory of water, on its course from the tops to the valleys, thereby drawing multiple contours and geological attributes. The vision developed in the quotidian experience of hillside dwellers—who walk on a hill and live in it— agrees with the vision of the scientist—who observes all from the distance of scholarly study—in that they both acknowledge the existence of an intimate collaboration between land and water. The hills, especially those made of spongy structures like tezontle, are water-bloated reservoirs that surge from underneath. These hills have rounded tips, and water streams from the highest point down. Water runs effortlessly down the slope of a mountain, filling furrows that geography itself opens as trails, creating slithering water streams that reach the lower lands and spread along the valleys with the force supplied by gravity. [...]
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in ENCYCLOPEDIA