Toltec Tula emerges in central Mexico

1000

North of the Valley of Mexico, refugees and warrior clans coalesced around a new capital of colonnaded halls and stone warrior columns. The Toltecs would dominate Mesoamerican trade routes and lend prestige to every dynasty that followed, including Aztecs who claimed them as ancestors. Their cult of the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl spread across the region, shaping religious life from Yucatan to the desert frontier.