Altepexi

Altepexi, between Tehuacán and Ajalpan in the heart of the Tehuacán valley, runs its own small municipality in south-eastern Puebla. The Nahuatl name translates as "water that falls from the hill". The 2020 census gave the municipality 22,629 people, and nearly all of them, 21,307, live in the town itself. It borders Tehuacán to the north, Ajalpan to the east, Zinacatepec and San José Miahuatlán to the south and San Gabriel Chilac to the west.

Nahuatl-speaking groups founded the town in the valley; in late colonial times it belonged to the district of Tehuacán, and in 1930 it became a municipality. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi.

The land is flat, rising slightly to the north-east toward the Sierra Madre Oriental, and the clay soil suits irrigated farming. The Tehuacán River, one of the tributaries of the upper Papaloapan, crosses the north of the municipality, its banks lined with mesquite. To the west rises a mesa crossed by two water channels. The climate is semi-warm and dry, more arid to the south, where desert scrub grows and goats are raised. Plants include the valley's cacti, ponytail palm, prickly pear, reed, mesquite and pitaya; animals include coyotes, rabbits, bats and birds such as the Tehuacán dove.