In the past century it was known simply as "Ruin of Tonala," but the people of the region of Tonala considered the great platform of the main building (B-1) was a basement of an old church and started traditionally called "Church old. " Cultural Importance Old Church The archaeological site is located 4 km north of the town of Tonala, sits on the plateaus, over 700 m high in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. The prehispanic city was built on three plateaus divided by a series of streams and more than 80 structures, distributed in five architectural groups, which are open B and C groups where you can see more than 10 intervened structures. The character's Highlights Old Church is the megalithic architecture that uses extremely large granite blocks of stone, some measuring more than three meters or 2 tons, which exists only in this construction site in all of Mesoamerica. It also reported more 30 sculptural monuments, for example, you can see the Altar 1 at the front of the structure C-3 with a zoomorphic face, possibly of turtle, with three anthropomorphic faces. The old church site chronology ranges from the Late Preclassic (600 -100 BC) to the Late Classic (600-900 AD), and intensive building activity correspond to the Early Classic period (250-600 AD). The megalithic city of Old Church functioned as a capital of the Zoque in the Isthmus area from Gulf to the Pacific, taking advantage of its strategic position located in the intermediate communication path between Mayan groups, and the Zapotec and Mixtec of Oaxaca and played an important role in the geopolitical landscape of the Early Classic Mesoamerica.

There are service module and a parking lot at the entrance the archaeological site. There are also signs, tables of stone, stone bench or chair and wooden logs.

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 8:00 to 17:00 hours.

Contact: Chiapas INAH Center 01 (961) 6 12 83 60.

Wear comfortable shoes.

From the city Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital to the international airport, is located 170km to reach the Panamerican Highway 190, which goes to the city Tonala, with 2 hours away you are going. To access the site there is a partially paved road of 11 km, which connects at kilometer 10 of the road Tonalá-Arriaga, 6kme after Tiltepec river.