The term Mesoamerica is used to refer to a geographical region that extends roughly from the Tropic of Cancer in central Mexico down through Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica, and which is characterized by the particular cultural homogeneity that the indigenous cultures in this region exhibit. As such it is a cultural area, defined by the cultural similarities that have spread between the different cultures of the area through millennia of interaction. The Tropic of Cancer (cancer (♋) is Latin for crab), one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth, is the parallel of latitude that lies 23° 26 22 north of the Equator. ... A cultural area is a region (area) with one relatively homogenous human activity or complex of activities (culture). ...

Landscape of the Mesoamerican highlands

Mesoamerica is located between 10° and 22° northern latitude. It encompasses central Mexico, except for those Mexican states that border the United States and San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Aguascalientes and the north of Sinaloa. It extends south to include the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the Pacific coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica up to the Gulf of Nicoya. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1365x951, 618 KB) Farmers in their fields Men gather to talk after a day tending their fields in the state of Puebla, Mexico Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1365x951, 618 KB) Farmers in their fields Men gather to talk after a day tending their fields in the state of Puebla, Mexico Source: http://www. ... Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter φ, gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the Equator. ... The Mexican state of San Luis Potosí has an area of 62,848 km². It is in the north-central part of the republic, bordered by the Mexican states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Zacatecas. ... Zacatecas is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. ... Durango (IPA pronunciation ) is one of the constituent states of Mexico. ... Aguascalientes is a state of Mexico, situated in the center of the country. ... Sinaloa is the name of a city, a municipality and a state in Mexico. ... The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an isthmus in Mexico. ... The Yucatán Peninsula separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. ... View of the Pacific Ocean from Oregon. ... The Gulf of Nicoya, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, separates the Nicoya Peninsula from the mainland of Costa Rica, and encompasses a marine and coastal landscape of wetlands, rocky islands and cliffs. ...

The region comprises a complex combination of ecological systems. Archaeologist and anthropologist Michael D. Coe groups these different niches into two broad categories: lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and altiplanos or highlands (those situated between 1000 and 2000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates, the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. I dont know anything! ... In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem. ... For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ... The metre, or meter (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... Subtropical (or semitropical) areas are those adjacent to the tropics, usually roughly defined as the ranges 23. ... The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics: the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. ... Map of Central America and the Caribbean The Caribbean (pronounced or ) Sea is a tropical sea in the Western Hemisphere, part of the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the Gulf of Mexico. ... Mountain climate (also highland climate) is something of a crude geographical term used for the kind of climate in the mountains and generally in the high country. ... In geography, temperate latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. ...

Highlands

Some of the valleys of the highlands of Mesoamerica have fertile soil suitable for farming. This is true of the valleys of Oaxaca, of Puebla-Tlaxcala, and of the Mexican Federal District. However, the mountainous terrain blocks the passage of clouds, making rain scarce and providing few sources of running surface water. This situation is particularly severe in the hot valley lands of the Mixtec area, perhaps the driest part of the highlands. Agriculture (a term which encompasses farming) is the art, science or practice of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. ... The Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced in English) is in the southern part of Mexico, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. ... The Mexican state of Puebla is located in the center of the country, to the east of Mexico City. ... Tlaxcala is the name of both a state of Mexico and of that states capital city. ... The Mexican Federal District, known in Spanish as Distrito Federal (D.F.), is an area within Mexico that is not part of any of the Mexican states, but an independent self-governing city-state and the seat of the Federal Government. ... Cumulus of fair weather Different cloud types A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. ... Rain falling For other uses see Rain (disambiguation). ... Codex Zouche-Nuttall, a pre-Columbian piece of Mixtec writing, now in the British Museum The Mixtec (or Mixteca) are a Native American people centered in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. ...

The first archaeological researchers in Mesoamerica postulated that the climate was more hospitable in the past. However, as more research was conducted in the area, it became apparent that the climate was not very different than it is today, even though the ecosystems do show a significant degree of decline due to human activity. Many parts of the highlands show evidence of early deforestation, and various species have disappeared from their former habitats. Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested. ... Habitat (from the Latin for it inhabits) is the place where a particular species lives and grows. ...

The turkey was one of the few species domesticated by the Mesoamericans.

The highlands of Mesoamerica, while not extraordinarily rich, proved sufficiently fertile to allow the development of the high agricultural cultures of ancient, pre-Hispanic times. In fact, the situation was quite similar to that of other regions of the world where early civilizations thrived, as in the north of Peru, or in the valley of the Indus River in Asia. In these sites, as in Mesoamerica, humans had to to learn to make the most of the resources that were available in their ecological niches. The Mesoamericans of the highlands, as agricultural peoples, learned to store water or divert it from its sources in the mountains to the cultivable lands. Perhaps most characterisitic of the farming techniques of Mesoamerica was cultivation in chinampas, or artificial islands. Chinampas developed in the lakes of the Tarasca plateau, and especially in the Valley of Mexico, where some chinampas still survive in Xochimilco. Further, residents had to learn to keep track of time, for the planting season fell between the dry, hot spring, and the winter frosts—two periods that would threaten a good harvest of their principal crop, maize. Wild turkey from Fish & Wildlife Service File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Wild turkey from Fish & Wildlife Service File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. ... The Indus River in Northern Areas of Pakistan, near the rock Aornus. ... Chinampas is an Aztec term referring to a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture through floating gardens—small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land used for agriculture in the Xochimilco region of the Basin of Mexico. ... Xochimilco within the Federal District Xochimilco (Nahuatl for in the flowery fields) refers to both: One of the 16 delegaciones (or boroughs) within the Mexican Federal District (Mexico City), and The name of a series of canals within that delegacion, all that remains of the ancient Lake Xochimilco. ... Binomial name Zea mays L. Maize (Zea mays ssp. ...

Lowlands

The situation in the lowlands was very different. On the southeast coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the rains are very abundant. Lush tropical forests full of vegetative species covered a good part of the coastal plain, and presented an obstacle to the development of agriculture. In these areas, both the vegetation and the excess water were a problem. To deal with this, the ancient Mesoamericans invented systems of drainage, remnants of which can still be seen in the Chontalpa region of Tabasco, where the so-called camellones chontales are to be found. Tabasco is a state in Mexico. ...

The jaguar was a valued animal throughout Mesoamerica. It lived in the lowlands from Oaxaca down into South America.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (897x600, 87 KB) Jaguar (Panthera onca) photo from US Fish & Wildlife Service - http://images. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (897x600, 87 KB) Jaguar (Panthera onca) photo from US Fish & Wildlife Service - http://images. ... The Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced in English) is in the southern part of Mexico, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. ...

Cultural Areas

Map of the cultural areas of Mesoamerica

Cultural areas are those inhabited by peoples who have various cultural elements in common. This is not to say that all the peoples in an area share a common ethnicity (indeed, in many cases they do not even share the same language), but this does not prevent various types of interactions among them, such as political, commercial, or some other type of relationship or alliance. Image File history File links Mesoamerica_english. ... Image File history File links Mesoamerica_english. ...

Central Mexico

Panoramic view of the valley of Teotihuacan, in the centre of México.

One of the most important areas in the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico is known as 'Central Mexico'. This area is composed of moderate to cold valleys in the southern part of the Mexican high plateau and in the north of the Balsas River basin. It is an ecological niche characterized by its temperate climate and absence of significant water sources. The rains arrive between the months of April and September, and are not abundant. This led to the early development of hydraulic projects, among them the building of canals from the rivers–reservoirs in the hillsides for storing water. Image File history File links Pirámide_del_Sol_-_Teotihuacán. ... Image File history File links Pirámide_del_Sol_-_Teotihuacán. ...

The valley of Tehuacán, located in the southeast of this region, is important because there are found the oldest remnants of maize cultivation, and examples of the most ancient ceramics in Mesoamerica. Central Mexico also includes the lake basin of the Valley of Mexico, composed of various lakes and lagoons. Many important peoples thrived near Lake Texcoco, such as those of Cuicuilco, in the Preclassic period; Teotihuacan in the Classic period; and Tula and Tenochtitlan in the Postclassic period.

Maya Region

Río Usumacinta.

The Maya region is one of the largest in Mesoamerica. Some authors divide it into two parts: the Yucatan Peninsula, in the north, and the Tierras Altas ("Highlands"), in the south. The first area comprises, in addition to the Yucatan Peninsula, the Guatemalan Petén and Belize. It is an area of low-lying lands with a hot climate, battered by the hurricanes and tropical storms of the Caribbean. It is a limestone plateau, slightly elevated toward the south, where the Mayan mountains interrupt the plain. It lacks surface water, though the soil is very porous, and cenotes (water-filled sinkholes) are abundant. The other region, the Tierras Altas, comprises the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas. It is a region of cold-to-temperate climate, with abundant rains. The slopes of these mountains are covered by heavy vegetation that impedes the development of agriculture. The Mayan Tierras Altas are not protected from the influence of the Caribbean cyclones, and storm destruction is frequent in the region. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1217 KB) An image of the Usumacinta River, the border between Chiapas, Mexico (near side), and Guatemala (far side). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1217 KB) An image of the Usumacinta River, the border between Chiapas, Mexico (near side), and Guatemala (far side). ... El Petén El Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. ... A Cenote or Cenotes (plural)is the name given in the south part of Mexico and centro-america for a large, subacuatic cave, (or series of) usually a Cenote has a mayan-linkage, because these was a important part of their rites. ...

The first important cultural developments in the Maya region occurred in the southern part. The first ceramics, produced in the Belizean region of Cuello, appear to indicate that the development of earthen pottery in the Maya region was derived from South American traditions. Centuries later, the first population centers developed, later becoming the cities of the Classic period. Among them were Kaminaljuyú and Tikal, the latter being the largest of the Maya cities between the third and eighth centuries CE. The fall and abandonment of these great cities is the result of a combination of factors: internal wars, ecological disaster, climate change, and migrations from the north of Mesoamerica. Thus the center of Maya culture moved to the Yucatán. In this region would flourish the later cities of Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, and Tulum, among many others, that, in reality, grew to be small rival states. Kaminaljuyu is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization, in highland Guatemala, now within modern Guatemala City. ... Tikal is the largest of the ancient ruined cities of the Maya civilization. ... Templo de los Guerreros (Temple of the Warriors) at Chichen Itza. ... Panorama of Uxmal Uxmal (, ) is a large Pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. ... Tulum against the blue sea Tulum (sometimes rendered as Tuluum) is a Pre-Columbian walled city of the Maya civilization located on the Caribbean Sea coast of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. ...

Oaxaca

La Mixteca mountain range

The Oaxacan region has been one of the most diverse since the Mesoamerican epoch. It is a completely mountainous territory, marked by the Sierra Madre del Sur and the Mixteca shield. It includes a portion of the Balsas River basin, characterized by its dryness and complicated geographical relief. Its river beds are shallow and of small capacity. In this sense, it appears much like Central Mexico. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (906x630, 101 KB) Sumario Panorámica de la Sierra Mixteca, a la altura de Nativitas Monte Verde (Oaxaca). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (906x630, 101 KB) Sumario Panorámica de la Sierra Mixteca, a la altura de Nativitas Monte Verde (Oaxaca). ... Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending 1000 km from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Istmo de Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. ...

There were two principal scenarios in the cultural history of the Oaxacan people. On the one hand, the Central Valley of Oaxaca saw the development of the Zapotec culture, one of the most ancient and well known of the Mesoamerican region. This culture was developed by the chiefdoms that controlled the arable land (which was very fertile, albeit dry) of the small valleys of Etla, Tlacolula, and Miahuatlán. Some of the first examples of great architecture in Mesoamerica were in this region, for example, the ceremonial center of San José Mogote. The hegemony of this center in the Valley region passed into the hands of Monte Albán, the Classic capital of the Zapotec. The fall of Teotihuacán in the 8th century CE permitted the great heights achieved by the Zapotec culture. However, the city of Monte Albán was abandoned in the 10th century CE, and gave way to a series of regional centers that fought among each other for political dominance. The Zapotec are an indigenous people of Mexico. ... Monte Albán is a large archeological site in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. ...

The other principal scenario was that of the Mixtec region, which lies to the west of the Central Valley. The Mixtec region has also been occupied since prehistoric times. It has an extremely mountainous terrain of variable altitude, rising to more than 3000 meters. The climate varies from mountainous and temperate to tropical and dry, and rain is generally scarce. There is little running surface water, and presently, a good part of the area has become alarmingly deforested, a result of the ground-clearing agricultural practices of the ancient inhabitants of the region.

By the Preclassic period there were already important population centers in the region, such as Yucuita and Cerro de las Minas. However, the Mixtec capitals did not reach the magnitude of their Zapotec neighbors. The summit of the Mixtec culture was reached in the Postclassic period, when Lord Ocho Venado de Tutupec y Tilantongo embarked on a campaign of political unification of the Mixtec city-states, and came to occupy the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.

Guerrero

Guerrero has traditionally been considered part of Western Mexico. However, recent discoveries have reoriented the divisions of the Mesoamerican cultural areas, and in the works of recent authors, Guerrero is regarded as an independent cultural area. The Guerrero region occupies approximately the area of the southern Mexican state of the same name. It can be divided into three regions with different characteristics: in the north, the Basin of the Balsas River, whose current is the defining characteristic of the regional geography. The Balsas Basin is a low-lying region, with a hot climate and scarce rainfall, whose dryness is mitigated by the presence of the Balsas River and its numerous branches. Central Guerrero corresponds to the Sierra Madre del Sur, a region rich in mineral deposits but poor in agricultural potential. Lastly, the southern part of the region consists of the Pacific coast, a wide coastal plain, full of mangroves and palms, battered by hurricanes from the south. Guerrero is a state in the United Mexican States. ... Balsas could refer to: Balsas, a city in Brazil The Balsas River in Mexico The canton of Balsas in El Oro province, [[{Ecudaor]] This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

Guerrero was the site of the first pottery traditions in Mesoamerica. The most ancient remains have been found in Puerto Marqués, near Acapulco, and are about 3500 years old. During the Preclassic period, the Balsas Basin became an area of vital importance for the cultural development of the Olmec, who left signs of their presence in areas such as Teopantecuanitlán and the grottos of Juxtlahuaca. Later came the development of a sculptural tradition known as Mezcala, characterized by its geometrization of the human form. During the Postclassic period, the greater part of Guerrero remained under the domination of the Mexica, and only the Tlapanec lands of Yopitzinco remained independent. Acapulco (Officially: Acapulco de Juárez) is a city and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 300 km (190 miles) southwest from Mexico City, at . ... Monument 1, an Olmec colossal head at La Venta The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, roughly in what are the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. ... The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. ...

The West

El Bajío

The Western Region is one of the least known areas of Mesoamerica. It is an extensive region that comprises the slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a part of the Sierra Madre del Sur y and the middle and lower basin of the Lerma River. The foothills of the mountain were covered by forests of pine and oak, but forestry in the area has reduced its size. The land is suited to cultivation due to its fertility and abundant water resources, especially in the coastal plain of Sinaloa, the Bajío, and the Tarascan Plateau. The climate varies from cold in the mountains, in the east of Michoacán, to tropical along the coast of Nayarit. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1103x789, 270 KB) a big blue sky and bright yellow field accompany a lone tree near san miguel de allende, mexico (apparently i like this combination) Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1103x789, 270 KB) a big blue sky and bright yellow field accompany a lone tree near san miguel de allende, mexico (apparently i like this combination) Source: http://www. ... The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico and the extreme southwest of the United States, extending 1500 km from southeast Arizona (south and east of Tucson) southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins with the Sierra Madre Oriental and... The Lerma River (Río Lerma) is Mexicos longest river. ... Species About 115. ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... Sinaloa is the name of a city, a municipality and a state in Mexico. ... El Bajío The Bajío is a region of central Mexico that includes the plain south of the Sierra de Guanajuato, in the state of Guanajuato. ... The Tarascan Plateau (Spanish: Meseta Tarasca) is a region of the Mexican state of Michoacán, located at the foot of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. ... Michoacán de Ocampo (From michoaque, Nahuatl for those who have fish) is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. ... Nayarit is a state on the central Pacific coast of mainland Mexico. ...

This region was inhabited by Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples, such as the Cora, the Huichol, and the Tepehuano. The incorporation of these peoples into the sphere of Mesoamerican civilization was very gradual, and it is presumed that the first ceramics developed in this region were linked to traditions of the Andean people of Ecuador and Perú. The changes that clearly affected the rest of the region are less observable in the West, and for that reason, the cultural traditions of the Preclassic period, such as those of the Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit, or those of the Tumbas de Tiro survived well into the Classic period (150-750 CE). The best known of the western societies is the P'urhépecha, or Tarascan, which rivaled the power of the Mexica during the 15th century CE. Pre-contact distribution of Uto-Aztecan languages (note: this map does not show the distribution in Mesoamerica) The Uto-Aztecan languages are a Native American language family. ... approximation of the extension of the Cora habitat The Cora are an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico that live in the Sierra de Nayarit and in La Mesa de Nayar in the mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. ... Huichol yarn painting The Huichol are an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico that live in the Sierra Madre Occidental. ... The word Andean refers to the geographic area in and around the Andes Mountains of South America, and to the indigenous peoples that inhabit the area, such as the Inca. ... - Peru (Spanish: República del Perú) is a country in western South America, bordering Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the east, south-east and south, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ... A shaft tomb or shaft grave is a type of burial structure formed from a deep and narrow shaft sunk into natural rock. ... Tarascan men reeling cord for nets & making nets, 1899. ...

The North

Turquoise, one of the main products of the North of Mesoamerica.

The North of Mesoamerica formed part of the cultural superarea only during the Classic era (150-750 CE), during which Teotihuacan's apogee, and population growth, favored migration towards the north and commerce with distant Oasisamerica. The region is flat, compressed between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental. The climate is dry, if not desert-like, with scarce vegetation, for which reason agriculture was only possible through the canalization of surface water currents (especially the Pánuco River and the Lerma tributaries) and the storage of rain water. The excessive dependence on good weather led the people of the North to abandon the region in the middle of the 8th century after enduring a prolonged drought and invasions of Aridoamerican people. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) turquoise and argillite (orange) inlay pieces, circa 1020-1140 CE. L 0. ... Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) turquoise and argillite (orange) inlay pieces, circa 1020-1140 CE. L 0. ... This article is about the gem. ... Teotihuacan was the largest Pre-Columbian known city in the Americas, and the name Teotihuacan is used to refer to the civilization this city dominated, which at its greatest extent included most of Mesoamerica. ... Oasisamerica was a broad cultural area in pre-Columbian North America. ... The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico and the extreme southwest of the United States, extending 1500 km from southeast Arizona (south and east of Tucson) southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins with the Sierra Madre Oriental and... The Sierra Madre Oriental is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico, spanning 1000 km from Coahuila south through Nuevo León, southwest Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, to northern Puebla and Querétaro, where it joins with the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Eje Volcánico Transversal of central Mexico. ... Río Pánuco or the Pánuco River is a river in Veracruz, Mexico. ... Aridoamerica is a term used to describe the northern region of Mexico, in contrast to Mesoamerica (the south). ...

The centers of population in the North were dependent on the network of commerce that was established between Teotihuacan and the Oasisamerican societies. Sites such as La Quemada in Zacatecas, and La Ferrería in Durango served as forts to guard the commercial routes. When agriculture and the social system collapsed in the North, the occupants of the region migrated towards the West, the Gulf, and the Center of Mexico. Teotihuacan was the largest Pre-Columbian known city in the Americas, and the name Teotihuacan is used to refer to the civilization this city dominated, which at its greatest extent included most of Mesoamerica. ... Image:Laquemada. ... Zacatecas is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. ... Durango (IPA pronunciation ) is one of the constituent states of Mexico. ...

Centroamerica

Lake Nicaragua

The area known as Centroamerica occupies the Pacific coasts of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The climate of this region is tropical, with important geological activity, and includes the great Mediterranean lakes of Central America: Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. As in the case of the northern region, Centroamerica formed part of the Mesoamerican world only temporarily. It is customary to count the Centroamerican peoples as part of the transition zone between the Andean world and Mesoamerica. Their first contact with the center of Mesoamerica occurred in the Preclassic period, as indicated by the Olmec influence in the area. However, in the Classic period relations were interrupted and Centroamerica received significant cultural influences from the Colombian Altiplano. The development of metallurgy in Centroamerica, for example, occurred much earlier than in the rest of Mesoamerica. During the Postclassic period, the area was again part of the Mesoamerican sphere, and was invaded by the Pipil and Nicarao, both speakers of Nahuatl, a dialect of the language of the Mexica. Image File history File links Nicaragua Lake. ... Image File history File links Nicaragua Lake. ... The Nicoya Peninsula is a peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and lies in the Guanacaste Province in the north, and the Puntarenas Province in the south. ... Lake Nicaragua (Spanish: Lago de Nicaragua) or Lake Cocibolca (Lago Cocibolca) is a freshwater lake in Nicaragua and it is of tectonic origin. ... Lake Managua from space, January 1986 Lake Managua (also known as Lake Xolotlán) (located at 12°20′ N 86°25′ W) is a lake in Nicaragua. ... The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain), where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. ... The Pipil are a loose confederation of Nahua indigenous peoples known for prehistoric migrations who currently live in El Salvador. ... Nicarao is the name of the the most populous indigenous tribe when the Spanish arrived in Nicaragua. ... Nahuatl is a native language of central Mexico. ... The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. ...