Cantona

Cantona is an archaeological site in the municipality of Tepeyahualco in eastern Puebla, near the Veracruz state line. It was one of the most urbanised cities in Mesoamerica: its ruins include a network of more than 500 paved streets, over 3,000 patios or household compounds and at least 24 ballcourts, more than any other known Mesoamerican city. The settlement covers about 12 km² in three sectors, and only a small part has been explored.

The city was built on a malpaís, a lava field, and was probably founded at the end of the Preclassic. It peaked between about AD 600 and 1000, in the Epiclassic, when Teotihuacan no longer dominated the highlands and regional centres competed for trade routes. Cantona watched over traffic through the Serdán valley and lived from mining, working and trading obsidian; there are obsidian and stone workshops, and the Zaragoza obsidian mine is nearby. Buildings are of stacked volcanic stone with no stucco, with causeways over a kilometre long running between high walls and a defensive moat around the city, like a fortress. On the highest ground stands the acropolis, with temples, ballcourts and the homes of the elite. It may have held about 80,000 people at its height and was abandoned by around AD 1100.

Even the name has a story. INAH has used Cantona since 1790; Henri de Saussure, who visited in 1855, noted that locals called it "the city of the Cantón". The name Caltonac, "house of the sun", put forward by Nicolás León in 1903, has no documentary support. Who built Cantona is still unknown.