|
Toltec
Toltec , ancient civilization of Mexico. The name in Nahuatl means "master builders." The Toltec formed a warrior aristocracy that gained ascendancy in the Valley of Mexico c.AD 900 after the fall of Teotihuacán. Their early history is obscure but they seem to have had ancient links with ...
Read more
|
|
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca , ancient deity of the Toltec in Mexico. Identified with the night sky, the moon, and the stars, and associated with the forces of evil and destruction, Tezcatlipoca shared dominion over humanity with Quetzalcoatl , the god of light and good. Of the various legends surrounding their ...
Read more
|
|
Tula
Tula , ancient city in the present state of Hidalgo, central Mexico. It was one of the chief urban centers of the Toltec . The city is believed to be Tollán, the legendary Toltec capital mentioned in a number of postconquest sources, including Bernardino de Sahagún's Historia General...
Read more
|
|
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca , city (1990 pop. 279,187), capital of Morelos state, S Mexico, in the Cuernavaca Valley. Increasingly a suburb of Mexico City (to the north), Cuernavaca has flour mills and beverage, textile, and cement industries. It is also a popular tourist and health resort. In the city are beautiful...
Read more
|
|
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl [Nahuatl,=feathered serpent], ancient deity and legendary ruler of the Toltec in Mexico. The name is also that of a Toltec ruler, who is credited with the discovery of corn, the arts, science, and the calendar. It is unclear whether the ruler took his name from the god or as a great ...
Read more
|
|
Hidalgo
Hidalgo , state (1990 pop. 1,888,366), 8,058 sq mi (20,870 sq km), central Mexico. Pachuca de Soto is the capital. Crossed by the Sierra Madre Oriental, the state is extremely mountainous; in the southern and western areas, however, are plains and fertile valleys lying within Mexico's central plat...
Read more
|
|
Monte Albán
Monte Albán , ancient city, c.7 mi (11.3 km) from Oaxaca, SW Mexico, capital of the Zapotec . Monte Albán was built on an artificially leveled, rocky promontory above the Valley of Oaxaca. Located around an enormous plaza about 1,000 ft (300 m) long and 650 ft (198 m) wide are long, l...
Read more
|
|
pre-Columbian art and architecture
pre-Columbian art and architecture works of art and structures created in Central and South America before the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many years the regions that are now Mexico and Guatemala and the Andean region of South America had been the cradle of indigenous civili...
Read more
|
|
Mixtec
Mixtec , Native American people of Oaxaca, Puebla, and part of Guerrero, SW Mexico, one of the most important groups in Mexico. Although the Mixtec codices constitute the largest collection of pre-Columbian manuscripts in existence, their origin is obscure. Before the arrival (700?) of the Toltec ...
Read more
|
|
snake worship
snake worship The snake has been variously adored as a regenerative power, as a god of evil, as a god of good, as Christ (by the Gnostics), as a phallic deity, as a solar deity, and as a god of death. It has also served as the symbol of Satan and many deities, including Apollo and the Egyptian god ...
Read more
|