Toltec Pyramids of Tula

Timeline

1. c. 950–1070Core zone of the Tula site · HidalgoThe Toltecs established Tula as their capital on the Mexican Plateau, building the Feathered Serpent Pyramid and the Pyramid of the Sun; the Atlantean columns and serpent-wall reliefs atop them embodied the religious ideology of the warrior-priest ruling class.
2. c. 1071–1080Tula ritual and palace district · Mexican PlateauAround 1071–1080, the Tula pyramids and colonnaded palaces maintained their apogee appearance; Toltec warriors, Feathered Serpent worship, and colonnaded architectural language spread through trade and migration to Yucatán polities such as Chichén Itzá, forming shared Postclassic Mesoamerican cultural traits.
3. c. 1150–1200Central Mexican Plateau · Mexican PlateauAfter Tula was destroyed around the 12th century it was gradually abandoned and the Toltec political entity dissolved; however, its pyramid-building paradigm and Feathered Serpent mythology were inherited by the Aztecs, becoming the source of the later myth of Tollan–Tenochtitlan, the 'City of Destiny'.