El Tepeyac

El Tepeyac belongs to the municipality of Cuautepec de Hinojosa, in the Lagos y Volcanes de Anáhuac subprovince, and has nothing to do with the hill of the same name in Mexico City. Its coordinates put it 2,264 metres above sea level, on plain and low rolling hills, 1.7 km north of the municipal seat.

The word is Nahuatl: tepetl, "hill", yacatl, "nose", and the ending -c, which marks a place. Roughly, it means "at the hill with a nose", a name for a rise that juts out from the range. The climate is temperate and sub-humid with summer rain, and the area drains to the Río Metztitlán sub-basin, within the Moctezuma basin.

The census numbers show late, steady growth. In 1930 there were only 152 residents and 129 in 1940; 330 were counted in 1960, 517 in 1980, 887 in 1990 and 1,602 in 2010. The 2020 census recorded 1,702 people and 426 occupied dwellings, 2.8% of the municipal population. Marginalisation is rated medium and social lag low. Closeness to Cuautepec explains much of that growth: this is a place that lives right up against the seat.