Based on known facts, it was the first important civic-religious center of the Mexican Highlands, its population probably including all the social strata and cultural traits that would characterize the altépetl (city-state) of classical Mesoamerica.

[5] It was destroyed and abandoned following the eruption of the volcano Xitle, causing migrations and changes to the population and culminating in the consolidation of Teotihuacan as the ruler of the Central Highlands during the Early Classic period.

One of the pyramids was built in a strategic position, representing early prehispanic attempts to link religious concepts with cosmic events through building construction.

According to Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH), American archaeologist and anthropologist Zelia Nuttall (1857–1933) believed that Cuicuilco means: “Place where songs and dances are made”.

[6] Cuicuilco was founded as a farming village, but provides evidence of early religious practices, including stone offerings and the use of ceramics as grave goods.

The city grew around a large ceremonial center with pyramids and an associated urban area that included plazas and avenues bordering a series of small, shallow pools.

[6] Archaeological evidence, ceramic and structures, indicate that Cuicuilco developed during the first millennium BCE, during the Preclassic, as a small settlement, its inhabitants interacting with other sites in the Basin of Mexico as well as relatively distant regions, e.g. Chupicuaro to the west and Monte Albán southeast.

If true, these proto-urban characteristics might have extended into the late Preclassic, with Cuicuilco weakening between 100 BCE and 1 CE, the time when Teotihuacan began to develop, later becoming an important urban center in the Classic period.

In the mid-Preclassic (c. 800 BCE), settlements emerged in the area, which slowly evolved and grew, becoming cities, subsequently developing into a major civic-ceremonial urban centers in the late Preclassic (c. 100 CE).

Towards the late Preclassic period, around 150 BCE, Cuicuilco became an urban regional center, with a population estimated at 20,000 inhabitants, comparable with Teotihuacan at that time (cf.

Cuicuilco's development was affected by the eruption of the Xitle volcano, which formed a layer of lava that partially or completely covered the city's structures, whose extension is inferred to have reached nearly 400 hectares (cf.

[9] In spite of the abandonment of Cuicuilco as an important ceremonial center, people continued making offerings even after the site was covered by lava from the Xitle volcano, which happened around 400 CE[6] or in the range 245 to 315 AD.

Pottery and other evidence suggest that refugees from the volcanic disaster migrated north and became part of the population pool of Teotihuacan, near the northern shore of the Lake Texcoco.

Schávelzon, 1983)[7] Between 1966 and 1968, important complexes of architectural structures were found as well as a series of conical formations, a group called Cuicuilco B, where more than 300,000 ceramic pots were rescued (Müller, 1990).

Based on analysis of archaeological ceramics of Cuicuilco B, Florence Müller determined that the occupation of the settlement continued after the Xitle eruption, during the Classical, Epiclassical, postclassical periods until the Spanish conquest, even though the importance of the site as well as the number of inhabitants dropped radically.

[7] In 1990, in the sector known as Cuicuilco C, Rodríguez identified predominant preclassical ceramic materials, as well as, to a lesser extent, pots from later periods, including colonial and modern (Rodriguez, 1994).

On the other hand, the presence of braziers fragments, miniature pieces and Tlaloc vases indicates that these were thrown into the water as offerings as part of rites similar to those recorded by Spanish chroniclers as Sahagún (1989) and Duran (1967) in the twin cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco as well as in other settlements in late postclassical Mexico.

Cobean, 1990)[7] These archaeological materials indicate strong social interaction between the Valley of Mexico and other regions under the hegemonic power of Teotihuacan, as well as the conformation of sociopolitical units after the decline of said Empire, also as evidence of socio-economic aspects associated with the emergence of the Toltec State.

[7] It is a restricted area where deposits were affected by activities of the 20th century, fragments found of Aztec ceramics from the end of the late postclassical, materials of the colonial period (native and Spaniards) as well as 19th-century European fine earthenware.

This material provides evidence of a settlement or village in Cuicuilco from the Tepaneca-Aztec empire, before the Spaniards' arrival, continuing the occupation of land owners such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo and other.