Tenayuca

Tenayuca (Nahuatl: tenanyōcān) is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the Valley of Mexico. In the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology Tenayuca was a settlement on the former shoreline of the western arm of Lake Texcoco, located approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the northwest of Tenochtitlan (the heart of present-day Mexico City). Tenayuca is considered the earliest capital city of the Chichimecs, nomadic tribes that migrated and settled in the Valley of Mexico, forming their own kingdoms.

Etymology

Tenayuca means walled place in Nahuatl.

Location

The pyramid of Tenayuca is located in San Bartolo Tenayuca in Tlalnepantla de Baz, in Mexico State. It falls within the urban sprawl of Greater Mexico City.

History

By some historiographic traditions Tenayuca had been founded ca. 1224 by Xolotl, a semi-legendary ruler of a "Chichimec" tribe that had settled in the Valley of Mexico in the period some time after the 12th-century collapse of the former political hegemony in the Valley — the so-called Toltec empire, emanating from Tula. Xolotl was succeeded by Nopaltzin who consolidated the Chichimec Kingdom . His son, Tlotzin, became lord of Tenayuca. When Nopaltzin died, his successor Quinatzin transferred the seat of Chichimec power to Texcoco, relegating Tenayuca to a site of secondary importance.