Tula is the site of a major Toltec city that flourished in what is now Mexico from the A.D. 900’s to about 1200. The site–and the city’s ruins–lie near the town of Tula de Allende, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Mexico City. No one knows what the people themselves called the Toltec city, but it is usually referred to as Tula.
Numerous archaeologists believe Tula was the capital of the Toltec empire. Some think Tula was in fact Tollan, a Toltec capital described in legends of the Aztec . Others believe the name Tollan refers to some other city, possibly Teotihuacán , which thrived northeast of present-day Mexico City until the A.D. 700’s.
Tula’s economy was based on the manufacture and trade of a variety of goods, but especially of tools made of obsidian (volcanic glass). Its people also used irrigation to grow such crops as corn and beans.
Most of Tula’s houses were one-story buildings with adobe walls and flat roofs. In addition, the city had ball courts, and pyramids with temples on top.
Tula was just a small village until the A.D. 900’s. Some archaeologists think its importance increased when it gained control of nearby obsidian mines. Its population then grew to about 50,000. Tula declined about 1200, and nomads from the north overran the area. The Aztec temporarily revived Tula in the 1400’s and early 1500’s.
