Cañada de la Virgen lies in the countryside of Guanajuato, in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende. It is not a compact ruin beside a town square: the archaeological zone occupies a landscape of hills and the Laja River basin, where five monumental groups are distributed across about 16 hectares. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) identifies the settlement as Hñähñu (Otomi) in origin and dates its occupation from about AD 540 to 1050. The place makes most sense as a planned ceremonial centre connected to a wider region, not as a collection of isolated pyramids.
INAH describes the site as a centre of religious and calendrical authority associated with agriculture and trade routes. Its buildings include the House of the Thirteen Heavens, the House of the Longest Night, the Red Temple and other monumental groups connected by a ceremonial avenue. These names help visitors navigate, but they should not be mistaken for complete explanations of the buildings’ ancient functions. Archaeologists combine architecture, deposits, landscape studies and comparisons to interpret the site; parts of that interpretation remain research rather than certainty.