Tochtepec

Tochtepec, Tecamachalco's neighbour in the Tepeaca valley, heads a municipality of about a hundred square kilometres in central Puebla. In Nahuatl the name joins tochtli, rabbit, tepetl, hill, and c, in: "on the hill of the rabbits". Perched at about 1,970 m, it had 7,443 residents in 2020.

Its history runs deep. Documents show Tochtepec was a well-established community with a notable culture by at least AD 1000, and at the end of 1179 the Toltec-Chichimecs conquered it along with other towns in the region. Since then it has been called Tochtepec, and its people were known as tochtepeuas. Originally the town stood at the foot of the hill now called Cerro de Cristo Rey. In 1895 it became a municipality.

The municipality, about 102 km² at an average of 1,980 m, borders Santo Tomás Hueyotlipan to the north, Huitziltepec, Tepeyahualco de Cuauhtémoc and Tlanepantla to the west, Xochitlán Todos Santos to the south and Tecamachalco to the east. In the town centre stands the church of Santa María de la Natividad, its landmark building.