The Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila encompass fields, towns, archaeological sites, haciendas, and distilleries in the valleys beneath the Tequila volcano in Jalisco. Indigenous peoples used agave for food, fiber, tools, building materials, fermented drinks, and ritual long before Spanish conquest. Archaeological remains associated with the Teuchitlán tradition, including circular ceremonial complexes, demonstrate that the region's cultural history predates tequila production by many centuries and cannot be reduced to a single commercial beverage.

Spanish colonization brought new landholding systems, livestock, technologies, taxation, and distillation. By the colonial period, producers were distilling agave spirits that developed into what became known as tequila. Estates organized fields, ovens, mills, fermentation vessels, stills, warehouses, water systems, and transport. Indigenous communities, enslaved and free workers, tenant farmers, muleteers, craftspeople, and later wage laborers supplied knowledge and physical work. Colonial authorities alternately taxed, regulated, encouraged, or attempted to restrict production.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, railways, industrial equipment, national regulation, advertising, and export markets expanded the industry. Blue agave became the legally defined raw material for tequila, and companies transformed local family and hacienda production into a global business. Jimadores continue the skilled work of cultivating and harvesting mature plants, cutting away leaves to expose the piña. Reliance on a narrow crop base, intensive agriculture, water use, labor conditions, and changing ownership create environmental and social challenges alongside economic opportunity.

UNESCO inscribed the cultural landscape in 2006. The designated area includes extensive agave fields and historic industrial facilities associated with Tequila, Amatitán, and El Arenal, together with settlements and archaeological evidence. Some distilleries remain active, while others survive as heritage complexes or ruins. Tourism routes, museums, tastings, and branded experiences can support preservation, but they may also simplify Indigenous history, conceal difficult labor relations, or turn a living agricultural region into a picturesque backdrop.

The landscape is significant because agriculture, industrial architecture, community knowledge, and regional identity remain physically connected. Conservation cannot focus only on impressive distilleries; it must also protect field patterns, water systems, workers' history, archaeological sites, traditional skills, biodiversity, and the long-term viability of towns. Interpretation should distinguish ancient agave use from later distilled tequila and avoid implying an unchanged tradition. It should also recognize seasonal workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on volatile harvests and prices. The World Heritage property demonstrates how Indigenous plant knowledge, colonial power, industrialization, labor, and modern global markets combined to produce one of Mexico's most recognizable cultural landscapes.