ZONA ARQUEOLOGICA PAÑHÚ

It is a small site that, for some, will have as its only attraction to offer very beautiful views of this region known as the Mezquital Valley. However, it represents an important link in pre-Hispanic history, linking the culture of Chapicuaro (Guanajuato, pre-Classical period) with the more southerly history of the northern surroundings of the Mexico Valley. The city was built by the Xajay culture in the middle of the 4th century; it is therefore contemporary with the great Teotihuacán, but its development is parallel and it remains independent of it. It was only after the fall of Teotihuacán in the 7th century that the territorial recompositions it engendered had repercussions on this small city, which then saw the control of certain trade routes regained and its architecture evolve towards more monumentality. In the 11th century, its inhabitants abandoned it to found, with other groups, the great Tula, which would now dominate Mesoamerica. According to researchers, this city is the centre and origin of the Otomi people, whose history follows the evolution of the entire region to the present day.