Tepeyac
mountain in Mexico
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names Tepeyacac and Tepeaquilla, is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost Alcaldía or borough of Mexico City. According to the Catholic tradition, it is the site where Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December 1531, and received the iconic image of the Lady of Guadalupe. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe located there is one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.
Spanish colonists erected a Catholic chapel at the site, Our Lady of Guadalupe, "the place of many miracles." It forms part of the Sierra de Guadalupe mountain range.
Pre-Columbian history
Tepeyac Hill "had been a place for worshipping Aztec earth goddesses."
Tepeyac is believed to have been a Pre-Columbian worship site for the indigenous mother goddess Tonantzin Coatlaxopeuh ("Tonantzin" is a title of the greatest respect and "Coatlaxopeuh" is a name).
Etymology
In Nahuatl, Tepeyacac is a proper noun, a combination of tepetl ("mountain"), yacatl ("nose"), and the relational word -c, ("at").
“Tepeyac” enters the record as mountain in Mexico. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tepeyac, mountain and Mexico can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Tepeyac” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Tepeyac, mountain and Mexico provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q1014974. Authority coordinates are 19.487, -99.116. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1531.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tepeyac”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tepeyac primary sources, Tepeyac archive and Tepeyac research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tepeyac”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tepeyac” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.