Ancient farming

Terracing has been used for centuries to help prevent fire, moderate temperatures, and make farming possible even when water is scarce.

Ancient Aztec Farming

By Dimosthenis Vasiloudis

Imagine roaming the planet 2500 years ago as part of a nomadic tribe. You do not have a phone, electricity, car, or single other luxury. If you happened to wander into the Arabian Desert in what is modern-day Jordan, the location probably would not seem an idyllic place to stop and build a major city. […]

Raised field construction (from Clark Erickson) Raised fields -- an ancient form of agriculture, practiced by the Mayas, Aztecs, and the ancestors of the Incas -- was one of the most productive preindustrial farming systems anywhere. These fields were abandoned in most areas centuries ago, and largely forgotten. In the 1980s archaeologists excavated ancient raised fields around Lake Titicaca in the Andes. Based on their findings, modern rural peoples started rebuilding raised fields. They…

Chinampas — an ingenious adaptation to the Valley of Mexico's lake-filled landscape — could hold lessons for cities around the world.

The Fertile Crescent is the name given to the arc-shaped area of land that stretched across the Middle East from the northern end of the Gulf in the East to the Nile Valley in the West.

A blog on landscape architecture and related fields

'Does the ancient farming technique of shelving mountainsides to create crop terraces, like here in Northwest Vietnam, remind you of…