A report on Mesoamerica, Mexico and Toltec

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521.

The Aztec greatly appreciated the toltecayotl (arts and fine craftsmanship) of the Toltec, who predated the Aztec in central Mexico.

The Mexica (Aztecs) were descended of Nahua ancestry, and the Toltecs are often thought to have been as well, though in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity.

Through their integration in the Mesoamerican cultural area the Nahuas adopted many cultural traits including maize agriculture and urbanism, religious practices including a ritual calendar of 260 days and the practice of human sacrifices and the construction of monumental architecture and the use of logographic writing.

With the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, the casta system, which divided the population into racial categories with differential rights, was eliminated and the term "Indian" (indio) was no longer used by government, although it continued to be used in daily speech.

Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about 1.7 million Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller population in the United States.

The people of the Toltec culture of Tula, which was active in central Mexico around the 10th century, are thought to have been Nahuatl speakers.

Starting in the 1970s, scholars of Mesoamerican ethnohistory have analyzed local-level texts in Nahuatl and other indigenous languages to gain insight into cultural change in the colonial era via linguistic changes, known at present as the New Philology.

The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system.

The Maya civilization developed in the area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.

The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.

Hidalgo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Hidalgo (Estado Libre y Soberano de Hidalgo) is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico.

The modern day state of Hidalgo is located within the pre-Hispanic region of Mesoamerica.

The Toltecs initially settled in Xochicoatlán, now the municipality of Molango, at the beginning of the 7th century.

The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán State, Mexico.

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities, or Tollans, referred to in later Mesoamerican literature.

It is built in a combination Maya and Toltec styles, with a staircase ascending each of its four sides.