An Epiclassic fortified palace-city near the southern border of Tlaxcala, prospering 650-900 CE probably by controlling trade routes through central Mexico with a population under 10,000; renowned for vividly colored murals painted in a Maya-influenced style, and paired with the more public ceremonial complex at nearby Xochitecatl.
Declined with the wider Epiclassic upheavals of central Mexico by c. 900 CE as power shifted toward Tula and the rising Toltec state; the site was abandoned but its murals survived buried and are now a protected archaeological zone.
Covers Cacaxtla's Epiclassic rise, its Olmeca-Xicalanca associations, and its Maya-style murals in the context of post-Teotihuacan central Mexico.