Paquime (Casas Grandes) is the most important archaeological site in northern Mexico, and it does not look like anything else in the country. Adobe walls, T-shaped doorways, and multi-story apartment buildings that feel more like the Southwest US pueblos than anything Aztec or Maya. That is because Paquime was a crossroads — connecting Mesoamerica with the Pueblo cultures of the American Southwest.
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The Ruins
The adobe buildings were originally three to four stories tall. Today the walls stand one to two stories in most places. The T-shaped doorways are distinctive — a design shared with Pueblo sites in New Mexico and Arizona, suggesting cultural connections along the turquoise trade route.
The site had sophisticated water systems — stone-lined channels that brought water from springs into the city, and ceramic pipes for drainage. Ceremonial ball courts, platform mounds and macaw breeding pens (they traded scarlet macaw feathers south) round out the picture of a complex trading city.
The Museum
The Museo de las Culturas del Norte at the site entrance is excellent — well-designed exhibits covering the Casas Grandes culture, the trade networks connecting Mexico with the Southwest, and the remarkable Mata Ortiz pottery tradition that revived Paquime-style ceramics in the 1970s.
Mata Ortiz
The nearby village of Juan Mata Ortiz has become famous for pottery that recreates and extends the Paquime tradition. Potters like Juan Quezada revived the ancient techniques and the village now produces some of the finest hand-built pottery in Mexico. You can visit workshops and buy direct from the artists.
Getting There
Paquime is near Nuevo Casas Grandes in northwest Chihuahua state. Chihuahuenses buses run from Chihuahua city (5 hours). From the US, you can drive from El Paso (about 4 hours south through Columbus, NM and Palomas border crossing). The ruins are 1km from the town of Casas Grandes.