Huandacareo La Nopalera

La Nopalera sits on a hill at the northwest corner of Lake Cuitzeo, above the town of Huandacareo, whose Purépecha name is usually translated as "place of judgments" or "tribunal." To build it, its people shaped the slope with retaining walls and large amounts of fill, creating terraces that look out over the water.

The site had two very different lives. Between roughly 600 and 900 AD it was a typical small settlement of the Cuitzeo lake area, mixing local traditions with influences from the Bajío and Teotihuacan. Later, in the second millennium, it became an administrative center of the Purépecha (Tarascan) state, and its spaces, burial customs and objects changed, including the arrival of copper.

About 80 burials have been excavated here, many with Purépecha offerings and more than a hundred copper objects. The Patio of the Tombs holds stone-lined graves roofed with large slabs, and an area beside the sunken patio held burials that point to sacrifice. INAH spent almost ten years of research before opening it to the public.