Castillo de Teayo is the name of a modern Mexican municipality in the state of Veracruz, where the ruins of a temple, dating to Postclassic Mesoamerica, lie. The site lies in the Huastec region of the Gulf Coast of Mexico, but the temple shows influence of Aztec/Mexica art and architecture. The place has been known since the 19th century when a town was established near the ancient ruins.
A well preserved pyramid, made of three large levels and a central stairway, supports a one-room masonry temple. The pyramid now stands in the middle of the town square. No extensive excavations have been carried out at the site, except for the restoration of the pyramid and the identification around it of many stone sculptures portraying different deities such as Tlaloc, the Central Mexicoan rain god, Quetzalcoatl, Chalchiutlicue and Xipe Totec. Many of these are now on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Scattered potsherds within the site pertain to both Aztec and Huastec cultural spheres.
The site was probably an important Huastec city, and later became an Aztec colony occupied by people from Central Mexico in the Late Postclassic period. The Aztec/Mexica and their allies of the Triple Alliance incorporated this town into the empire around 1470, when the Aztec emperor Axayacatl conquered most of the Gulf Coast.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Mesoamerica , and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Solís Olguín, Felipe, 1981, Escultura del Castillo de Teayo, Veracruz, Mexico, UNAM, Mexico City
Umberger, Emily, 2001, Castillo de Teayo, in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, edited by Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster, Garland Publishing, New York, pp: 98-99