Zona Arqueológica Pañhú

Pañhú is a small archaeological site on a flat-topped hill near the village of La Mesilla, southwest of Tecozautla. Its name is Otomí and is usually translated as "hot path", a fitting name in a valley full of thermal springs. The INAH began excavating here in 2007 and opened the site to visitors in 2015.

The people who built it belonged to what archaeologists call the Xajay culture, which flourished in this corner of Hidalgo and Querétaro during the first millennium AD, at the same time as Teotihuacan. Researchers link the Xajay to older Chupícuaro traditions and see them as part of the story of the Otomí in the Mezquital Valley. What you can see today is the acropolis, the ceremonial core where priests and rulers are thought to have lived, with platforms, stairways and terraces arranged in three groups, including mounds identified as temples to the sun and to Tláloc. Ordinary people lived lower down, below the mesas.

The ruins are modest compared with the big Mesoamerican cities, but the setting is the reward: wide views over the semi-desert valley, and very few other visitors. Otomí communities still hold ceremonies here.