One of the oldest significant remnants of pre-Hispanic settlement within the Distrito Federal, Cuicuilco echoes a civilization that stood on the shores of Lago de Xochimilco as far back as 800 BC. In its heyday in the 2nd century BC, the ‘place of singing and dancing’ counted as many as 40,000 inhabitants; at this time, the Teotihuacán civilization was only just beginning to rise to importance. The site was abandoned a couple of centuries later, however, after an eruption of the nearby Xitle volcano covered most of the community in lava.
