Tepeyac

This article is about the place. For the film, see Tepeyac (film).

Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost delegación or borough of the Mexican Federal District. It is the site where Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and received the iconic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Basilica of Guadalupe is located there today as one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.

A view of The Guadalupe Basilicas from Tepeyac Hill.

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 the language 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."