Pre-Columbian Civilizations of Mexico & Central America: Major Centers

Before Spanish arrival, advanced societies flourished across Mesoamerica and the Isthmus:

Central Mexico

• Tenochtitlan (Aztec capital, now Mexico City)
• Teotihuacan (Pyramids of Sun/Moon, 100 BCE–550 CE)

Oaxaca

• Monte Albán (Zapotec, 500 BCE–800 CE)

Maya Lowlands

• Palenque (Chiapas, Pakal's tomb)
• Chichen Itza (Yucatán, El Castillo)
• Tikal (Guatemala, Temple of Grand Jaguar)
• Copán (Honduras, hieroglyphic stairway)
• Quiriguá (Guatemala, giant stelae)

Southern Periphery

• Joya de Cerén (El Salvador, "Pompeii of the Americas")
• Tazumal (El Salvador, preserved pyramid)

These sites reveal sophisticated writing, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, and statecraft—millennia before 1492.