Xochicalco Archaeological Zone
What Xochicalco Was
A city built on high ground, in a world that had lost its center.
Location: Arrival and First Look, Xochicalco Archaeological Zone.
Before you take a step, imagine the world surrounding this hill. Teotihuacán, the great city of central Mexico, had fallen. Palenque and Tikal, in the Maya world, had fallen too.
UNESCO explains what came next. The societies of that time became more militaristic, and their cities were usually built in high places that were easy to defend. Xochicalco is a very well-preserved example of that kind of city, made of terraces, retaining walls, and ramps.
According to INAH, it was founded in the second half of the seventh century. It occupied six low hills and transformed them with terraces and walls. Kenneth Hirth maintains that the city grew very quickly and resettled between ten thousand and fifteen thousand people.
It was a city of blending. Its reliefs combine designs from central Mexico with figures in the Maya style. One source describes that time as an age of cultural eclecticism, when cultures crossed paths and influenced one another.
It was also a city of rivalries. Medina Romero, the site's director, says that Xochicalco competed with other cities of its era, such as Teotenango, Cacaxtla, El Tajín, and La Quemada. It was founded around the year six hundred seventy and abandoned around the year one thousand sixty-five, according to Alvarado León.
On this tour you will climb through three levels. The lower one, with defended entrances. The middle one, where the market, the workshops, and the houses stood. And the upper one, where power was concentrated. Along the way you will see how time was measured with the sky, what the city's writing said, and how it all ended, suddenly, amid fires.
Xochicalco is usually translated as place of the house of flowers. A city with such a gentle name, made to defend itself. That tension will stay with you from beginning to end.
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