Cañada de la Virgen: “The house of the thirteen heavens”

Cañada de la Virgen: “The house of the thirteen heavens” and another perspective of the pre-Hispanic world

Published April 30, 2023

The place is made up of four monmental structures in which the Otopames possibly lived.

The archaeological zone of Cañada de la Virgen, is located in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, is a pre-Hispanic settlement of the Toltec-Chichimeca cultures, installed on 12 hectares of land, which had its heyday between 600 to 900 AD, this place served to carry out astronomy work. Its layout reflects the cosmic cycles, which were linked to the rainy seasons, important for farmers in the area.

La Cañada de la Virgen was part of a social organization linked to the political system of the Toltecs and it is known that it was also occupied by the Otomi people. It was known as “The House of the 13 Heavens” and was conceived as a moon clock to establish the periods of agriculture and hunting.

In this area there are seven architectural structures, which form sunken courtyards, a ball court area, esplanades and squares, as well as a causeway just over 1 km long; according to the vestiges found, the last people who occupied it were the Toltecs. The site located on the northern border of Mesoamerica has a symmetrical axis with the sunrise and sunset, for this reason it is considered that it could have been used for rituals and ceremonies.

The place has a privileged defensive position, dominating the land on one side of the Laja River, an impressive place, which was abandoned for 800 years until it was discovered in the sixteenth century, by settlers of San Miguel, (today San Miguel de Allende) and where vestiges of an important civilization were found, characterized by its advanced ceramic industry and its revolutionary agricultural system for those times.

Among the different architectural complexes, the main one is “The House of the 13 Heavens”, an observatory where a sunken courtyard and a pyramidal basement of 15 meters high stand out, which in its highest part is the “Red Temple” with an abstract mural based on red and black stripes that symbolize day and night.

Undoubtedly, the archaeological zone of Cañada de la Virgen is the most important pre-Hispanic settlement in the state of Guanajuato, worthy of being visited and admired.

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