Tepeyac
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost delegaciĆ³n or borough of the Mexican Federal District. It is the site where Saint Juan Diego is said to have met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and the Basilica of Guadalupe is located there today.
Tepeyac is also believed to have been a pre-Columbian worship site for the indigenous mother goddess Tonantzin.
In Nahuatl, Tepeyacac is a proper noun, a combination of tepetl ("mountain"), yacatl ("nose"), and the relational word -c, ("at"). According to scholars of Nahuatl, "The term would generally be expected to mean a settlement on the ridge or brow of a hill. Since yacatl (the nose going first) often implies antecedence, here the word may refer to the fact that the hill is the first and most prominent of a series of three."