Soledad de Maciel
Archeological site
Soledad de Maciel
Built from river stones and adobe, this ancient city might once have been as important as Teotihuacan. 2,500 years ago it was the capital of the Costa Grande in the present-day state of Guerrero. Inhabited by Tomils, Cuitlatecs and Tepoztecs, it has a partially excavated ballcourt which could be the largest in Mesoamerica.
The ancient city of Xihuacan was the main Cuitlatec religious center. Its territory covered the Costa Grande of the present-day state of Guerrero and the Sierra Madre del Sur between the municipalities of Petatlán and Zihuatanejo. The area was known as Cuitlatecapan, the “fiefdom of the Cuitlatecs,” after the group who inhabited the place from 2,500 BC and which in the sixteenth century covered a vast area between the coast and the Tierra Caliente. Its occupation dates from the Preclassic period. The most ancient area is on the top of the Cerro de Los Brujos, where figurines known as Baby Face and Pretty Woman were found. The Ceremonial Center is the second complex, an example of the innovative use of earthen architecture built around 450 AD taking astronomical references from the planet Venus, the Sun and the North Star to determine the layout.
The construction process involved making an adobe platform to level the terrain in an area of 72 acres where four massive buildings were erected, one of which was Mound B with adobe and baked clay cladding. These structures define a plaza whose northern part is associated with a palace area, the ballcourt and the southern slope of the Cerro de Los Brujos, incorporating them into the ceremonial landscape. Both these areas are surrounded by a system of artificial channels connected to the river San Jeronimo. Water still flows through them giving the settlement the air of a mythical island. The collapse of Xihuacan occurred around 1350 AD, after a meteorological phenomenon flooded the complex, leading to the gradual abandonment of the settlement.
- Dirección del Centro INAHHéctor Romeo Torres Calderónhector_torres@inah.gob.mx+52 (747) 471 7121
Juego de Pelota
The court was delimited by two asymmetrical lateral bases, built with granite blocks with a south-north orientation; the east side has a slope formed by a clay armored structure where an engraving was located in a construction block that symbolizes a bundle of years, identified in this context as
Juego de Pelota
The court was delimited by two asymmetrical lateral bases, built with granite blocks with a south-north orientation; the east side has a slope formed by a clay armored structure where an engraving was located in a construction block that symbolizes a bundle of years, identified in this context as the toponym of the ancient city. Inside the court different types of offerings were located as well as the presence of human bone remains associated to vessels and ceramic sculpture where the representation of the Jaguar was recurrent.
A characteristic of the Ball Court is that it was built below the levels of occupation of the public squares to refer to the first level of the underworld, where the Sun made its nocturnal journey.
The toponym that was located in the court is illustrated on page 23 of the Matricula de Tributos de la Provincia de Cihuatlán, to which Xihuacan belonged after the Mexica conquest between 1497 and 1503.
Aerial view of the Xihuacan Ball Court
Montículo B
The building covers a hectare of base and is made up of nine bodies in slope reaching a height of 14 meters.
Montículo B
The building covers a hectare of base and is made up of nine bodies in slope reaching a height of 14 meters. Four temples oriented to the cardinal directions were built on its summit, surrounding a plaza and a quadrangular altar, an area where the rooms, terracotta floors, braziers and water receptacles were located. Mound B is a space that narrates the intense priestly activity, which was centered on the cult of water, the creation of the new fire and the observation of the celestial bodies such as the Sun, Venus and the Moon, stars that were also a reference for the layout of the entire Ceremonial Center.
Facade of Mound B: It measures 48 m long and 22 m wide. Its measuring rings have characteristics that distinguish them from those of other cultures, as they are decorated with intertwined snakes and were placed in a vertical position.
West façade of Mound B
View of the section of the Crown of Mound B
