Tecoaque

Welcome, observant traveler, to the stark, windswept plains of Tlaxcala, and to the sobering archaeological site of Tecoaque, originally known as Sultepec. As a historian specializing in the violent, chaotic epoch of the Spanish…

Our journey begins at the outer edges of the settlement, near what would have been the defensive perimeter and the main thoroughfare approaching the city. Imagine the sprawling caravan lumbering across this dusty plain in June of…

We now move into the residential sector of Tecoaque. Look at the low stone foundations of the domestic structures surrounding us. …

We step now into the Great Plaza, the expansive ceremonial heart of Tecoaque. This is the stage where the final acts of the captives' lives were meticulously, violently choreographed. …

Dominating one side of the ceremonial precinct is a unique and fascinating architectural anomaly: a massive, circular basement. In a world of rigid, rectilinear pyramids, circular structures immediately signify the presence of a…

Just below the circular temple of Ehecatl, archaeologists uncovered the grim remains of one of the most chilling architectural features of any Mesoamerican ceremonial center: the Tzompantli, or the skull rack. This was not a…

Our final stop within the ruins takes us to a specific walkway designated by archaeologists as the Calzada de los Muertos, or the Avenue of the Dead. It is here that the archaeological narrative takes a surprising, almost…

As we conclude our haunting exploration of Tecoaque, let us pause in the quiet of these wind-swept ruins to reflect on the immense gravity of what occurred here. This site is not a place of triumph; it is a monument to the…