Castillo de Teayo is a small town in the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

. Located in the state's

Huasteca Baja The Huasteca Baja region is one of the regions of the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is part of the broader Huasteca La Huasteca is a geographical and cultural region located partially along the Gulf of Mexico and including parts of the states of ...

region, it serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. In the 2005 INEGI Census, Castillo de Teayo reported a total population of 4,159.

Name

"Teayo" comes from the Nahuatl ''te-ayo-k'', which means "tortoise atop stone". This is a reference to the main pyramid of the nearby archaeological site known as the Castle of Teayo, a syncretic blend of the

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: ; singular ) are a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island ...

, and

Huastec Huastec can refer to either: *Huastec people, an indigenous group of Mexico *Huastec language (also called "Wasteko" and "Teenek"), spoken by the Huastec people * Huastec civilization, the pre-Columbian ancestors of the modern day Huastec people ...

cultures.

References

Populated places in Veracruz {{Veracruz-geo-stub