Guachimontones in Teuchitlán, Mexico

Los Guachimontones represents the largest site that remains from the Teuchitlan culture that flourished in West Mexico around 400 CE.

The site is known for its distinct circular pyramid structures consisting of a round central altars (a style that is called "Guachimontón") surrounded by a circular patio space, and a circular banquette on which sits four to sixteen rectangular or square platforms. Excavations at several Teuchitlan sites have shown that a post hole is located in the central altar (or sometimes central space if the altar is lacking). Based on ceramic dioramas from looted shaft tombs and simple graves, the post holes seem to be indicative of a pole ceremony that these people performed all across their culture where a leader would climb the pole as a devotional act to their god.

American explorer Phil Weigand discovered the structures in 1969 and up until his death in 2008 recorded over 200 guachimontones on the landscape, the majority being in the Tequila Valleys area in highland Jalisco. These people did not directly participate in wider pan-Mesoamerican practices such as the use of jade, centralized rulers, or the worship of common themed deities such as a feathered serpent or rain god (as far as archaeologists have been able to determine). However the Teuchitlan culture did seem to be deeply spiritual with a focus on ritual.