Wikipedia
Malinalco is the municipality inside of Ixtapan Region, is a town and municipality located 65 kilometers south of the city of Toluca in the south of the western portion of the State of Mexico. Malinalco is 115 km southwest Mexico City.
Malinalco has always been associated with magic or sorcery due to the legend that it was the home the goddess Malinalxóchil. The municipality is home to the famed village of Chalma, where according to legend, an image of a Black Christ miraculously appeared in a cave that was devoted to the god Oxtoteotl. It is the second-most visited shrine in Mexico, after the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Aztecs conquered the area in the 1470s, and established here a sanctuary for their military elite, the Eagle and Jaguar warriors. The complex was built on the Cerro de los Idolos (Hill of the Idols), over an older ceremonial site. The main attraction of this archeological site is the Cuauhcalli or House of Eagles, which is a building carved out of the side of the mountain.
The name Malinalco comes from the Nahuatl word malinalli, which is a kind of grass ( Poaceae) called zacate del carbonero in Spanish, the word xóchitl, which means flower and co, which means place, which a translation of “where they worship the goddess Malinalxóchitl, the malinalli flower”. The name also refers to one of the time periods on the Aztec calendar, marked by the malinalli plant, according to the Quauhtinchan Annals. In Aztec and early colonial times, the area was represented by a number of glyphs, often with elements of the malinalli plant and/or a human skull to indicate sacrifice.
Unlike most other municipalities in the state of Mexico, Malinalco does not use an Aztec glyph or coat of arms. Instead, it has a logo that was designed by Ernesto Romero Tetazin in 1985. It consists of the seal of the nation of Mexico, from which rises a figure that simulates a low mountain under a malinalli flower. This includes the motto “Your archeology is the perseverance of our race, culture and work” (Tu arqueología constancia de nuestra raza cultura y trabajo). To the left is the word Malinaltepetl.
Cuauhtinchan Archeological Zone or Malinalco Archeological Zone, located just west of the town center on a hill called Cerro de los Idolos, which rises 215 meters above the town. On its sides are a number of pre-Hispanic structures built on terraces built into the hill. The main structures are at the top. This is one of the most important Aztec sites and was discovered in 1933, and explored by José Garía Payón in 1935. The visible complex dates from the Aztec Empire but the site’s use as a ceremonial center appears to be much older. The sanctuary complex was built from the mid 15th century to the beginnings of the 16th. To get to the Cerro de los Idolos one must climb 426 stairs up 125 meters. Along the stairway leading to the site, there are signs with area’s history written in Spanish, English and Nahuatl. The site contains six buildings. The Cuauhcalli or House of the Eagles, which dates from 1501, is the main building, which is significant in that it is carved out of the hill itself. The building is in the shape of a truncated pyramid, built this way due to the lack of space on the hill. The monolithic Cuauhcalli has been compared to the Ellora in India, Petra on the shores of the Dead Sea and Abu Simbel in Egypt. This was a sanctuary for the Eagle Warriors for rites such as initiation. A thirteen-step staircase leading into this temple is flanked by side struts. and two feline sculptures that face the plaza in front. The Cuauhcalli consists of two rooms, one rectangular and the other circular, with an opening in the wall between the two. After being carved out of the rock, the walls and ceiling were covered in stucco and painted with murals, most of which are almost completely gone. In the upper part, the entrance is symbolized by the open jaws of a serpent, complete with fangs, eyes and a forked tongue, which was painted red. This upper portion is covered by a thatched roof of the grass the area is named for.