Towards the north of the city of Colima, 6 km from downtown, located at the end of a way that is continuation of Venustiano Carranza street.
This site can be acceded by different means of transport:
Through local buses lines Colima - The Chanal, which are approached next to the church of Guadalajarita, beside San Fernando Commercial Plaza.
* Also it can be acceded by taxi.
* Or by particular automobile, on Venustiano Carranza street and continuing by a way paved with stones until arriving to the town of The Chanal. The site is signalized properly in its neighborhoods and by the main avenues of the city.
The Chanal was the first recognized archaeological zone as so in the State of Colima. It was explored in 1945 by the archeologist Vladimiro Rosado Ojeda. The most interesting structures are the Osario, the Pyramid and the Great Platform. It is possible to mention that although the dimension of the establishment exceeds the 50 hectares, only four of them have been explored and opened to the public.
The name of this place comes from imaginary beings inhabitants of the streams and known as chanos. In virtue to the great amount of representations of the God of Rain (Tláloc) existing in the region, it is possible that the name is a memory of the myths that stayed in their devotion and cult.
It is difficult to determine the ethnic origin of the inhabitants of the Chanal, since the found materials do not connect easily with the ceramic tradition of Colima. The certain thing is that the site arose and had its greatest splendor between years 1.100 and 1.400 b.C.; by its extension, it is probable that the pre-Columbian establishment is the greatest of the State, because it was developed towards both margins of the Green River (or Colima River). The ceremonial spaces, central places, altars and, even, some ball games abound in its interior.
The altars plaza extends in the middle of an open space and had to do, more likely, with the rites that took place in its two altars. The first one, of rectangular form, was destroyed by the plunderers. The second, circular, showed interesting evidences, because it were recovered from its interior a total of nineteen burials plus six found in its outer part. It is doubtless that the ceremonial spaces were fundamental for the social organization, because there were carried out acts and rites where the Gods legitimized the authority of the priests and governing elites.
In the esplanade denominated The Plaza of the Temple are the two most important buildings of the site: Structures 1 and 3. The first one is a pyramid of three bodies that had a staircase with hieroglyphic steps. Some the stones show images worked with animal, plants and possible deities figures.