Los Cerritos de Tepatlaxco

Locals simply call them the little hills of San Cristóbal Tepatlaxco: nine pyramid bases between 2.5 and 9 metres high that look taller than they are because they rise right on the edges of ravines. The site sits on the lower southwestern slopes of Cerro Totolqueme, about 2 km from San Martín Texmelucan and less than a kilometre north of the Atoyac River; gullies hem it in on the south, east, west and northwest, growing deeper toward the north. Beside the zone is the hamlet of San José, with 38 residents in 2020, at roughly 2,290 metres.

According to INAH, the place was occupied from roughly 300 BC to 600 AD. Nobody knows where its first settlers came from, but it is thought to have been a fortified site with strong Olmec influence. The materials found resemble those of Tlalancaleca, Texmelucan, Moyotzingo and other settlements of the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, which suggests trade and family ties among them. The name comes from the neighbouring village and has two Nahuatl readings: "in the ballcourt of the palace" or "plain of stony ground".

The buildings were made of irregular blocks of tepetate, faced with river cobbles and coated with a crushed-lime stucco that gave them a smooth, shiny finish. The highlights are Mound A, a pyramid base of about 7 metres standing on a 1.70 m platform, and the East Slope, built straight onto the hill's uneven ground on a north-south line, where five volcanic-stone steps of its stairway survive. There is also a smaller mound and an attached base. The zone is national heritage, and in December 2025 INAH marked 45 years since it opened.