Los Toriles

Los Toriles, officially the Ixtlán del Río archaeological zone, sits on the eastern edge of town beside Highway 15 and is the largest pre-Hispanic site open to visitors in Nayarit. People lived here for well over a thousand years. In its early phase the area belonged to the shaft-tomb tradition of western Mexico, known for burial chambers cut deep into the ground and the clay figures left in them; the town and its buildings reached their peak later, roughly between 750 and 1100 AD, when Ixtlán was a regional center of crafts and trade.

The star of the site is the round temple usually linked to Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl, the wind god. It is about 25 meters across, with stairways around its sides and a low wall on top pierced by cross-shaped openings, a design that is very rare in Mesoamerica. Around it are platforms, an altar and buildings with column bases, known by names like the Palace of the Columns.

Only a small part of the site has been excavated, and dozens of mounds are still unexplored. Ixtlán also gave its name to a style of clay figures and house models found in local tombs, which show scenes of daily life and are now in museums around the world.