Cantona

Cantona (La casa del sol) is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in Mexico. It is located between 2,450 and 2,600 meters above sea level in the state of Puebla, on the border with the state of Veracruz. The site lies about an hour's drive from the city of Puebla and about an hour and a half from Xalapa, Veracruz. Limited archaeological work has been done at the site. It is estimated that only one to ten per cent of the site can be seen. At its peak, Cantona was a walled, fortified city with a high level of urbanization. Its original inhabitants are unknown, but it is speculated that it was inhabited by Olmeca-Xicallanca groups towards the late Classical Period. Cantona sat astride an old trading route between the Gulf Coast and the Central Highlands and was a prominent, if isolated, Mesoamerican city between 600 and 1000 CE. It was abandoned after AD 1050. Its maximum apogee is placed at the epiclassical Mesoamerica period, that is, the period during which Teotihuacan ceased to be the main power center in the region and small regional states sought to gain control of the various trade routes. Cantona was one of these regional centers, and controlled Sierra Madre Oriental resources. The Pre-Columbian settlement area occupies approximately 12 km2, distributed in three units, of which the largest is at the south, with an area of five km2. In Cantona 24 ballgame courts have been d

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).