Cuicuilco Mexico City Mexico

The early history of Teotihuacan is mysterious, and the origin of its founders is debated.

For many years, archaeologists believed it was built by the Toltec.

This belief was based on colonial period texts, such as the Florentine Codex, which attributed the site to the Toltecs.

However, the Nahuatl word "Toltec" generally means "craftsman of the highest level" and may not always refer to the Toltec civilization centered at Tula, Hidalgo.

Since Toltec civilization flourished centuries after Teotihuacan, the people could not have been the city's founders.

In the Late Formative time, a number of urban centers arise in central Mexico.

The most prominent of these appears to have been Cuicuilco, on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco.

Scholars have speculated that the eruption of the Xitle volcano may have prompted a mass emigration out of the central valley and into the Teotihuacan valley.

These settlers may have founded and/or accelerated the growth of Teotihuacan.

Other scholars have put forth the Totonac people as the founders of Teotihuacan.

There is evidence that at least some of the people living in Teotihuacan immigrated from those areas influenced by the Teotihuacano civilization, including the Zapotec, Mixtec and Maya peoples.

The builders of Teotihuacan take advantage of the geography in the Basin of Mexico.

From the swampy ground, they construct raised beds, called chinampas.

This allows for the formation of channels, and subsequently canoe traffic to transport food from farms around the city.

The Xitle volcano at the southwestern edge of the Valley of Mexico erupts in 50 BCE, covering with lava the site of Cuicuilco, one of the most refined cities of Mesoamerica.

The subsequent diaspora of the Cuicuilcans, and the attendant diffusion of their culture across most of central Mexico, will influence important cultural changes in the nearby power center of Teotihuacan.