Tenayuca station

Neighbouring stations

• 3Line 3Terminus ← Tenayuca → San José de la Escalera

The story behind the icon

The station icon represents the Great Temple of Tenayuca. The station takes its name from the nearby urban and archaeological zone of Tenayuca.

Tenayuca comes from the Nahuatl word Tenayocan, meaning "walled place". This important centre was an autonomous metropolis near the lakes of the Mexican highlands, settled by Acolhua groups known as Chichimecs who came from north of the limits of Mesoamerica. These groups established themselves at Tenayuca around AD 1200 under the leadership of Xólotl. After a long development that extended the group's power over several neighbouring towns, King Quinatzin moved the seat of power to Texcoco, displacing Tenayuca as the principal Acolhua centre of the period; later it was conquered by the Aztecs.

In this ancient city the so-called Great Temple was raised. Today one can see the enormous quadrangular platform and its several stepped tiers, with a wide stairway on the main western façade bounded by two balustrades and divided by a double one in the centre, which climb to twin temples at the top dedicated to the deities of water and of war: Tláloc and Huitzilopochtli. It had eight construction phases and, although it grew in size, it kept its original characteristics. The building bears several carvings representing dates and is surrounded by a magnificent wall of serpents, or "coatepantli", displaying 138 heads of this mythical reptile, once covered in stucco and painted in vivid colours; this peculiarity answers to an astronomical symbolism tied to the solar cult, to the renewal of fire and to the cyclical period of 52 years.

Along the sides of the main building one can see various smaller platforms and assorted animal sculptures, above all serpents.

Some 200 metres from this site lies Tenayuca II, where the Palace of Xólotl stands; from its layout and complexity it has been determined that its function must have been residential. Ten rooms have been uncovered so far, preserving their original stone walls, and remains of stairways have also been found that suggest several building phases.

Archaeological study of the area began around 1920 and involved Mexican archaeologists such as Alfonso Caso, who described the inscriptions on the walls in 1928, while José Reygadas Vertiz and Ignacio Marquina took part in the first and most complete excavations in 1935. Next to the archaeological zone there is a site museum run by INAH called the "Museo Xólotl", opened in 1985; its collection is made up of ceramic and stone material from the site as well as human and animal bone remains.