Paquime, the most important ruins in northern Mexico, was built by the Oasis America cultural group, who lived in an area extending from northwest Chihuahua and northeast Sonora to the south-western United States. In its day this commercial centre imported turquoise from the north, seashells form the west coast, and copper and obsidian form the Valley of Mexico.

Its inhabitants lived in rammed-earth, multiple-storey house similar to the adobes of the Pueblo Indians to the north. Today, for the most part, only the first-floor exterior walls and myreiad room dividers survive.

The Museo de las Culturas del Norte highlights the Oasis America culture in general and Paquime in particular. Examples of the city’s pottery are displayed, as are a scale model of the site and artefacts from the mission church built near Casas Grandes in 1660.