Travel Tuesday – Tula de Allende

Happy Tuesday! Now that I have a bit more time, I’ll try to keep up with Travel Tuesdays. I don’t want to forget any of the amazing things I’ve seen. Today, a recap of the day trip my work buddies and I made to Tula de Allende.

The town of Tula de Allende is in the lovely state of Hidalgo and about an hour’s ride from Mexico City’s north bus station.

We went directly from the bus station to the archaeological zone. The entrance was ~$4. Before seeing the ruins, you can stop at the small museum that houses some of the artifacts from the Toltec site. The Toltec culture peaked around 700AD.


This is a chac mool. It completely blows my mind that this figure can be seen in the Yucatan peninsula and in central Mexico. The two cultures (Toltec and Maya) must have had contact, but historians are still fighting that one out.

A flag-bearer.

From the museum, we walked through this nice desert landscaping.

On to the ruins themselves! Here’s a carving on the side of one of the structures – the skull is still a feature in Mexican culture today.

These kind of reminded me of totem poles in the Pacific Northwest, but in the Toltec culture they’re called atlantes and are made of stone. Carved from stone! These statues are representations of warriors.

The town of Tula de Allende is very charming – we walked through the town center and found this drawbridge over the Rio Tula.

The Cathedral and Ex Convent de San Jose de Tula is just past the town square and was founded in 1543. 1543!

The cathedral’s altarpiece took my breath away. I loved the contrast of the modern mural and the colonial architecture.
I’ve noticed that quite a few altarpieces in Mexico reflect local history as well as the traditional figure of Jesus on the cross – Tula was no exception. My photo isn’t great, but you can see an atlante and a chac mool on the left, conquistadores and Franciscan missionaries on the right.

Thanks for looking at my photos!