ART

HISTORY

LOCATION

The Toltec, Nahuatl speaking people who ruled from about the 10th century to the 12th century A.D. They lived around the area of what is now Mexico City in a city named Tollan or Tula, the place of the Reeds.  Around the year 900 they sacked  and burned the great city of Teotihuacan, thus exhorting their power. The Toltecs were believed to be a group that played a very insignificant role in Mexican history, but as it turns out, the Toltecs led a militaristic regime that dominated Mesoamerica for approximately 300 years.  Monte Alban was their sacred city, which was built on top of a group of mountains, about 500 meters above the Valley of Oaxaca. Not only is the view superb but it is considered as one of the masterpieces of Mesoamerican architecture.  Today the stucco and the paint which the stone-work was covered and the temples on top of the pyramids have all disappeared, but the splendid symmetry remains, the perfect proportions, the sense of perfection and permanence that only rarely is to be found anywhere in the world.  To the people in the valley it must have been the center of the world, the place nearest to the gods, where the great priests and nobles lived, the place to which they turned in prayer and supplication, the perfect fulfillment of their religious beliefs and of their desire for eternal life.

From the book: Mexico in Colour  by Ignacio Bernal and Groth.