CuicuilcoCuicuilco is an important archaeological site located on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco in the southeastern Valley of Mexico, in what is today the borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City. Some historians believe this settlement goes back to 1400 BC. Other historians believe the pyramid could be the oldest building in the Americas circa 6,500 BC. Cuicuilco flourished during the Mesoamerican Middle and Late Formative (c. 700 BCE – 150 CE) periods.
Valley of MexicoThe Valley of Mexico (Valle de México, Anahuac) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec Empire. The valley used to contain five interconnected lakes called Lake Zumpango, Lake Xaltocan, Lake Xochimilco, Lake Chalco and the largest, Lake Texcoco, covering about of the valley floor.
CoyoacánCoyoacán (USˌkɔɪoʊəˈkɑːn , koʝoaˈkan) is a borough (demarcación territorial) in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco dominated by the Tepanec people. Against Aztec domination, these people welcomed Hernán Cortés and the Spanish, who used the area as a headquarters during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and made it the first capital of New Spain between 1521 and 1523.
XochimilcoXochimilco (ʃotʃiˈmilko; Xōchimīlco, ʃoːtʃiˈmiːlko ) is a borough (demarcación territorial) of Mexico City. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the precolonial period. Today, the borough consists of the 18 barrios, or neighborhoods, of this city along with 14 pueblos, or villages, that surround it, covering an area of .
XitleXitle (ʃitɬe Nahuatl, "navel") is a monogenetic volcano in the Ajusco range in Cumbres del Ajusco National Park. It is located in the Tlalpan borough in the southwestern part of Mexico City. It is an ash cone volcano with a conical form, round base, altitude of approximately 300m, and a slope between 30° and 40°. Xitle erupted during the period AD 245-315, according to the results of radiocarbon dating. Among the consequences of this eruption were the formation of the Pedregal de San Ángel lava fields, to the south of the Mexican Federal District.
CuernavacaCuernavaca (kweɾnaˈβaka; Cuauhnāhuac "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. Along with Chalcaltzingo, it is likely one of the origins of the Mesoamerican civilization. Olmec works of art, currently displayed in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City were found in the Gualupita III archeological site. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The name Cuernavaca is a euphonism derived from the Nahuatl toponym Cuauhnāhuac and means 'surrounded by or close to trees'.
MesoamericaMesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to most of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. In the pre-Columbian era, many societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas begun at Hispaniola island in 1493.
MorelosMorelos (moˈɾelos), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos (Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca. Morelos is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is bordered by Mexico City to the north, and by the states of México to the northeast and northwest, Puebla to the east and Guerrero to the southwest. Morelos is the second-smallest state in the nation, just after Tlaxcala.