A northern Mexican tribe, who established a military state between the 10th and 12th centuries at Tula, c.80 km (c.50 miles) north of modern Mexico City. They played an important part in the downfall of the city of Teotihuacán and were themselves overrun in the mid‐12th century by nomadic Chichimec tribes from the north. One of their kings was Topiltzín‐Quetzalcóatl, a religious leader who in their legendary history was driven from Tula by a military faction and sailed east into the Gulf of Mexico, vowing to return one day.