Cholula, in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of central Mexico, grew from a small Formative-period village into a major regional and religious center between roughly 600 BCE and 700 CE, contemporary with (and closely tied stylistically to) Teotihuacan; its Great Pyramid (Tlachihualtepetl) is the largest pyramid structure by volume in the world. Continuously significant through the Classic and Postclassic periods, Cholula remained a preeminent pilgrimage center for the cult of Quetzalcoatl even after falling under Tlaxcalan and later Aztec political influence.
Cholula was absorbed as a subordinate city within the Tlaxcala Triple Alliance sometime between 1200 and 1517, then seceded to join the Aztec side in 1517. In October 1519 it was the site of the Cholula Massacre, when Cortes's forces and their Tlaxcalan allies killed thousands of Cholulan warriors and nobles en route to Tenochtitlan, ending the city's independent political role even as it endured as a major settlement into the colonial period.
The atlas holds 10 border frames for Cholula — the shape you scrub through changes in 600 BC · 361 BC · 100 BC · 50 · 151 · 440 · 551 · 650 · 900 · 1390.
Standard archaeological synthesis of Mesoamerican civilizations, situating Cholula's Classic- and Postclassic-period development alongside Teotihuacan and the Maya.
Comprehensive modern textbook covering Cholula's long occupation sequence within the broader Mesoamerican urban tradition.