Cerro Tláloc (sometimes wrongly listed as ''Cerro el Mirador'';

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 ...

: ''Tlalocatépetl'') is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

and

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is located in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

, in the municipalities of

Ixtapaluca Ixtapaluca is a city and a municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the eastern part of the State of Mexico in Mexico. It lies between Mexico City and the western border of the state of Puebla. The name Ixtapaluca means "Where the salt gets wet". ...

and Texcoco, close to the state border with

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

. Formerly an active

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, it has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of , thus being the ninth highest mountain of Mexico. The mountain was considered by the Nahuan peoples, foremost among them the

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

s, to be specially sacred to the raingod

Tláloc Tláloc ( ) is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared ...

. In fact, the mountain was believed to be one of his primary earthly dwelling places, called Tlālōcān. Attribution of this and other mountains to the sacred presence of rain deities predates the Aztec era by centuries, even millennia. At the summit there are still remains of a shrine where high ceremonies would have been carried out. The rites of Tláloc were otherwise performed at his temples, most famously that occupying one half of the

Templo Mayor The (English: Main Temple) was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, Tenōchtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Mesoamerican chronology, Postclassic period of Me ...

at the heart of the temple precinct of nearby Mexico-

Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...

. The inherent analogy of temple pyramids to sacred mountains allows for the very likely possibility that the central temple of the Aztec capital, as such, was at least partly a symbolic representation of the actual Cerro Tláloc, and that the summit shrine of the temple was itself an analogue to that atop the mountain. The shrine atop is one of the highest-elevation shrines in the world. Together with Mount Telapón () and some other, lower peaks, Cerro Tláloc forms the "Sierra de Río Frío", the northernmost tip of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

. The mountain is easily accessible from Federal Highway 150 at the town of

Río Frío de Juárez Río Frío de Juárez, originally Río Frío (Cold River), a Mexican populated place, is located in the municipality of Ixtapaluca in the State of Mexico. Río Frío de Juárez is located at the highest point on the highway between Mexico City to ...

. The long, but easy and non-technical hike provides an elevation gain of over 1200 m. More strenuous routes depart from San Pablo Ixayoc and from other towns outside Texcoco.

Geology

Cerro Tláloc is an eroded

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

and the oldest and northernmost volcano in a volcanic chain extending south to

Popocatépetl Popocatépetl ( , , ; ) is an active stratovolcano located in the states of Puebla, Morelos, and Mexico in central Mexico. It lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. At it is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Ci ...

. Volcanism at Tláloc initiated during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...

. A major

Plinian eruption Plinian eruptions or Vesuvian eruptions are volcanic eruptions characterized by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption was described in a le ...

about 31,500 years ago produced

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

s and a major

pyroclastic fall A pyroclastic fall deposit is a uniform deposit of material which has been ejected from a volcanic eruption or plume such as an ash fall or tuff. Pyroclastic fallout deposits are a result of: # Ballistic transport of ejecta such as volcanic bloc ...

deposit composed of

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of extremely vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicula ...

Mountain's precinct

Cerro Tláloc features an enclosed precinct on its summit which could be reached through by taking a pathway up the mountain and entering the western side of the enclosure. The structure of the precinct consisted largely of pumice and tufa, which were locally found and were easily molded due to their soft physicality. The precinct houses 5 rock formations, one at the center and 4 at the corners of the ''tetzacualo'', or courtyard. The center rock is thought to be analogous to the

Codex Borgia The Codex Borgia ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Borg.mess.1), also known as ''Codex Borgianus'', ''Manuscrit de Veletri'' and ''Codex Yohualli Ehecatl'', is a pre-Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico featuring calendric ...

which depicts

standing in the center of his four rain forms (which are represented by the four directions). These 5 rock formations are representative of the Tlaloque, which are spirits that used vessels of water to distribute rain across the land. In addition, one side of the courtyard featured a construct that housed a statue of

among other idols that represented nearby sacred regions. This precinct served a major role in allowing a setting at which supplication could be made to the Tlaloque for sustenance of crops and the people of Mesoamerica.

Ritual practices

The Aztecs were known for their rituals that were undertaken in order to secure rain for the land. Extravagant ceremonies and plentiful offerings, were offered to

in order to please him several times each year with an emphasis at the beginning of the rain season. One annual feast called Huey Tozoztli occurred atop Cerro Tláloc and coincided with the date of highest annual temperature, which usually occurred in April, right before the start of the rainy season. The rulers and elites of

and nearby states, such as

Xochimilco Xochimilco (; ) is a borough () 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 cons ...

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala, is one of the 32 federal entities that comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tlaxcala, 60 municipalities and t ...

, and

Tlacopan Tlacopan, also called Tacuba, (, ͡ɬaˈkóːpan̥ was a Tepanec / Mexica altepetl on the western shore of Lake Texcoco. The site is today the neighborhood of Tacuba, in Mexico City. Etymology The name comes from Classical Nahuatl ''tlacōtl ...

, were also cited to have joined the feast. Another ceremony that took place atop Cerro Tláloc was Atlachualo which was celebrated from mid-February to early March.The main objective of these offerings were to please Tláloc and the Tlaloque in order to ensure rainfall for the rainy season to come, hence why both of the above ceremonies occurred a few months before the rainy season of summer.

Archaeological findings

Due to the irregularities of the damage done to the walls of the enclosure, researchers have claimed that the damage was likely as a result of human contact, rather than natural phenomena. The site was originally covered with pieces of green stone, shards of pottery, and obsidian blades. The archaeologists claim that the site maybe have been used up until the end of the Christian era. The modern shrine that appears is currently at the summit was likely built around the 1970s as an aerial view of the ritual site in 1956 does not show the current statue.

References

External links