Tingambato, Mexico - Tarascan Ruins In the Mountains --- a photo essay

The village of Tingambato is on the old road between Morelia and Uruapan. Situated in the heart of the region that supplies more avacados than anywhere else in the world, Tingambato looks like most other small villages in the region. A PEMEX gas station, a couple of small tiendas, some small restaurants, a mecanico or two, and a couple of narrow side streets.

Anyone that doesn't know that there are ruins of the Tarascan people here would go right by. In fact, that's what my daughter and I did. We stopped at the PEMEX station at the edge of town, filled up the tank, and asked in our limited Spanish for directions to the "sitio arqueologico".

We understood a little bit. Then we drove off in the direction the attendant had pointed. On the way back through town my daughter spotted a small sign with a picture of a pyramid and an arrow. We followed it. We went past the town square and church. Then we stopped and asked a couple of women for directions. They pointed down the street that led out of town and said something about 3 streets to the right. My daughter said she thought she said to take the 2nd street.

We continued down the street and turned on the second street. On the right side of the street was the local school. On the left side was a stone wall and an iron gate. We parked the car and walked through the gate.

We saw this sign and knew we were in the right place!

We went up to the caretaker's shack and paid our 12 pesos apiece, that's about $1.25 US, and went in.

A little past the first sign was a map of the site.

We walked past some piles of rock and some trees. As we came out from behind some trees we got our first glimpse of the partially restored pyramid.

To the right of the pyramid is the entrance to a tomb. A gate keeps people from entering.

After passing the tomb we went down the stone steps to the main plaza and the main altar at the foot of the pyramid.

Beyond the main plaza is the sunken ball court. It is one of the only ball courts found at a Tarascan site. They are normally only found at the Aztec sites. Maybe it was built by an Aztec tourist...

 Next we came to the Civil Area. I'm not sure why it's called the "Civil Area". The two stone rectangles are altars where it is believed human sacrifices were offered to the gods. Not so civil if you ask me...

From the other end of the Civil Area the remains of walls that formed rooms can be seen.

My daughter and I had the archaeological site to ourselves. Until the school bus rolled up. Then the kids ran from informational plaque to plaque copying down what each one told about the site. The plaques are in Spanish, Purepecha (the language of the indigenous descendants of the Tarascans), and English.

 Before we left the site we climbed to the top of the pyramid. It gave us a great view of the site and of the avacado orchards that spread out over the valley below.

My other Mexico photo essays: 

A Quick Trip Through Michoacan, Mexico 

Capacuaro

Birding in Mexico