Los Arcos

Anyone driving the free road between Cuernavaca and Cuautla passes, a few kilometres east of downtown Yautepec, under a row of masonry arches that straddle the carriageway. These are the Arcos de San Carlos, part of the aqueduct of the former Hacienda de San Carlos Borromeo, and they give the locality of Los Arcos (also called San Carlos) its name. The Secretaría de Cultura and INAH treat them as a historic monument; the press dates them to the 17th century, though reports disagree on their exact age.

The arches have paid for being on a trunk road. On 23 June 2021 a trailer that misjudged the height of its load knocked down part of the structure, and INAH Morelos assessed the damage. The reopening was formalised in early 2022 after roughly seven months of work. A December 2021 report notes that only the two central arches were restored and the outer ones were left as they were, so large trucks still scrape them.

The village has grown a great deal over the last century. INEGI counted 633 people in 1900, just 34 in 1921 after the Revolution, 1,699 in 1970 and 2,609 in 1990. The count nearly doubled to 5,657 by 2000 and stood at 5,736 in 2020. It sits at about 1,237 metres above sea level.

Today Los Arcos is mostly housing estates and neighbourhood streets, with a school but no hotels or museum of its own. For a visitor the point is the aqueduct, which takes a few minutes to see from a car or on foot along the shoulder, and the closeness to Yautepec, Oaxtepec and Tlayacapan.