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Unknown author  · Public domain  · a work of art, not a likeness

Tradition collection 287 records

Mesoamerica and the Andes

Aztec, Maya, Zapotec and Inca religion, and what the conquest left of them.

  • Extent Mexico, Central America and the Andes, roughly 1500 BCE to 1600 CE and after.
  • Holds 143 places · 130 gods · 5 traditions
See the sites

Before you count

Most surviving accounts were written after the conquest, by or for the people who ended the practice.

What else it is missing

Places · 143

Archaeological sites and places

133 of the 143 are recorded as archaeological sites — a culture’s cities and monuments, not evidence of worship there. The most widely linked first.

All 143 places

143 places 143 with a point on the map 17 with a date 133 archaeological sites

See them on the atlas

The oldest on record

The earliest recorded starts among its best-known places, by 1000 CE, in date order. Each date is the place’s own — a city’s founding, a building’s — not the start of this tradition there.

  1. 100 CE Tazumal Archaeological site
  2. 300 CE Tenam Puente Archaeological site
  3. 455 CE Chichen Itza Archaeological site
  4. 600 CE Ocomtún Archaeological site
  5. 741 CE Tikal Temple IV
  6. 850 CE Chan Chan Archaeological site

Gods · 130

The gods, and the company they keep

The most widely linked across Wikipedia, this collection’s own first. A picture of a god is a work of art, never a likeness.

All 130 gods

More of its best-linked gods

In company

Pantheons, read from the members’ own records — never from a fixed roster.

Muisca mythology 13 members on record Explore the pantheon

Traditions · 5

Many paths, shared histories

The traditions, schools and movements this collection holds — each with its own page.

Also here · 4

Also in this collection

Kinds it holds only one or two of, each with its own page.

What this collection holds

Counted, not scored. Each count opens its list.

Every collection

A record can be more than one kind — a monastery is a place and an institution — so these counts add up to more than its 287 records. The sections above count the same way, and draw each record once, under the kind its own page is filed under.

Statements
561
With references
59
Undated
270
Accounts
0
Reviewed here
0
What it is missing, and how it was assembled

What this collection is missing

Written by an editor, not computed. A count of records cannot say any of this, and a collection read without it is a collection read wrongly.

  • Most surviving accounts were written after the conquest, by or for the people who ended the practice.
  • Four Maya books survive out of an unknown number; the glyphic record is otherwise monumental.
  • Andean religion had no script of its own, and the khipu record is not read.

Counted across the collections

Festivals, practices and events follow how densely Wikidata records them, not how much a tradition keeps: 77% of the 845 held across the collections are Christian, and this collection holds none.

What the counts mean

Statements
Relationships and facts recorded on these records.
With references
Statements that cite a source outside Wikimedia.
Undated
Records with no date on any of the three clocks.
Accounts
Named versions of a story, kept apart.
Reviewed here
Read by a person and signed with a date.

How it was assembled

Discovered from Wikidata by class and by religion, ranked by incoming links, then filtered against each item’s own claims. Relationships are imported statements unless a row says otherwise; none of them has been read here.

“Reviewed” means a person read it and signed it with a date — which is why it is zero. Nothing here measures how good the material is.

Records here have an article in 16 languages between them. The interface is English only for now. Published 2026-09-25.

How 1 of these records were placed here through another record

Most records are in Mesoamerica and the Andes by their own statements. These are here because of another record they are linked to — worked out when the data was built, not stated on the record itself. Each one’s own page says the same.

Works, through their main subject · 1

CC BY-SA 3.0

Keep going

Walk Mesoamerica and the Andes another way.

A family tree as the accounts give it, every mapped place on the atlas, and the dates on the timeline — each on its own clock.

Quetzalcoatl’s family tree On the atlas The timeline