() is the name for the mythical origin place of the Aztec Mexicas, Tepanecs, Acolhuas, and other

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

-speaking peoples (or Nahuas) of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

, in the Postclassic period. The term Chicomoztoc derives from

''chicome'' (“seven”), ''oztotl'' (“cave”), and -''c'' (“place”). In symbolic terms these caves within a hill have been compared to the wombs from which the various peoples were born; another possible association is with the seven orifices of the human body. In either case, this term is associated with the origin, birth, or beginning of a group of people, both mythic and historical. There is an association of Chicomoztoc with certain legendary traditions concerning Culhuacan (''Colhuacan''), an actual

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

settlement in the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico (; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, 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, ...

which was considered to have been one of the earliest and most pre-eminent settlements in the valley. Culhuacan (''"place of those with ancestors"'' is its literal meaning in

Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl, also known simply as Aztec or Codical Nahuatl (if it refers to the variants employed in the Mesoamerican Codices through the medium of Aztec Hieroglyphs) and Colonial Nahuatl (if written in Post-conquest documents in the Lat ...

) was viewed as a prestigious and revered place by the Aztec/Mexica (who also styled themselves 'Culhua-Mexica'). In Aztec codical writing, the symbol or glyph representing the toponym of Culhuacan took the form of a 'bent' or 'curved' hill (a play on the homonym ''col-'' in Nahuatl, meaning "bent, twisted", e.g. as if by old age). Some researchers have attempted to identify Chicomoztoc with a specific geographic location, likely between 60 and 180 miles northeast of the

including perhaps a height near the present-day town of San Isidro Culhuacan. The purported existence of actual caves plays a role in New Age Mayanism.

Cerro Culiacán

In the State of Guanajuato the highest mountain is "El Cerro de Culiacán" and is surrounded by all the signs that correspond to the measure and chronicles of the legendary Chicomoztoc.

In fiction

In Clive Cussler's novel '' Lost Empire'', Chicomoztoc is discovered to be an island in

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

, Indonesia, from where the ancestors of the Aztec were exiled sometime in the 6th century.Lost Empire, pp. 312-3, 318

References

External links

* Places in Aztec mythology Places in Mesoamerican mythology Origin myths {{mesoamerica-stub

Cerro Culiacán

In fiction

See also

References

External links