El Cerrito was built atop a rocky outcrop in the southern part of the Querétaro Valley. Surrounded by fertile lands, a river, and a marsh, it met all the criteria for the sacred landscape of the original "Tollan", the mythic place of origin of the Toltec-Chichimeca peoples. In this primordial land, people had all the resources needed to survive and lived in harmony with their main deities. When it was time to send different peoples to inhabit the world, each group was given a patron god and a specific language. This origin story is depicted in the "Codex Cuauhtinchan 2", which shows "Chicomoztoc", the Hill of the Seven Caves, from which the seven Toltec-Chichimeca peoples emerge to populate the earth, guided by their patron goddess "Itzpapálotl".

In this gallery, you can see the only known carved stone stela in Mesoamerica depicting the goddess "Itzpapálotl", discovered at El Cerrito. A timeline also highlights the major Toltec sites across Mesoamerica: Tula, Chichén Itzá, Tututepec, and El Cerrito.