Cañada de la Virgen es declarada zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos

Published September 21st, 2022

The archaeological zone of Cañada de la Virgen in San Miguel de Allende was declared an Archaeological Monument Zone. On September 19, 2022, the Official Journal of the Federation (DOF) published the decree declaring the area of pyramids located on a surface of 722 hectares, 98 areas, and 55.50 centimeters as a Monument Zone, and today, September 20, it came into effect.

Within the cultural wealth of the state of Guanajuato, there is an archaeological zone known as Cañada de la Virgen, located in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, which comprises a total area of 722-98-55.50 ha (seven hundred twenty-two hectares, ninety-eight areas, and fifty-five point fifty centimeters), according to the delimitation plan made by the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

For them, the technical studies made by the National Institute of Anthropology and History refer that the archaeological zone Cañada de la Virgen is a pre-Hispanic settlement of Hñahñu (Otomí) origin, that the ancient inhabitants built from the contemplation of the route of the Sun, in such a way that its temples present a symmetrical alignment with the stars, whose characteristic makes it a unique city among the Mesoamerican ceremonial centers.

Cañada de la Virgen had its apogee between 600 and 900 A.D., during the Mesoamerican Epiclassic period; it shows a Mesoamerican architectural pattern: an axis of symmetry directed to the rising and setting of the Sun and the Moon, and a defensive position that visually dominates the central basin of the Laja River, which indicates the ritual importance of the place.

According to Article 28 of the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historic Monuments and Zones, archaeological monuments are understood to be the movable and immovable property of cultures prior to the establishment of the Hispanic culture in the national territory, as well as the human remains, flora and fauna related to those cultures.

Thus, as of September 20, 2022, Cañada de la Virgen becomes the forty-ninth Zone of Archaeological Monuments declared in Mexico, and the first one signed during the administration of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.