Created 21-Aug-09
Modified 21-Aug-09
The ancient name of Cuernavaca is "Cuauhnahuac" in Nahuatl which means "Place near or by the side of the groove". Founded seven centuries ago almost a mile high in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Today the pyramid of Teopanzolco rises in a residential neighborhood; a half-hour from where Mesoamerican high priests at Xochicalco studied astronomy in 600 A.D. and arranged the calendar. There remain other vestiges from pre-Hispanic times such as a 14 ton. engraved stone called Chimalli, the great lizard carved in stone found at San Anton and the Chapultepec Eagle, only to name a few.
Until 1910, the state of Morelos was the third major sugar cane producer world wide, after Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but peasants slaved without hope on the enormous sugar cane haciendas. When the Mexican Revolution began, most haciendas were burned to the ground. Some of them have been restored as luxury hotels.
© Alice Coyl