Tepoztlán

History

Nobody knows for certain who first settled this valley, though pottery found here goes back to around 1500 BCE. In the Postclassic period a small temple was built on the mountain above town for Ometochtli-Tepoztécatl, a god linked to pulque; it carries inscriptions from 1452 and 1502. Tepoztlán was absorbed into the Aztec Empire under Moctezuma I and produced cotton, maguey, amate paper and lime.

During the Conquest, Hernán Cortés is said to have ordered the town burned after its leaders refused to meet him. Dominican friars built a monastery here between 1555 and 1580, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in the 1990s. Local legend holds that the Tepozteco, the town's hero, was baptized in the Axitla river in 1532, and every September the Reto al Tepozteco reenacts, in Nahuatl, the challenge from neighboring lords that followed.

Carnival has been celebrated since 1862. In the 20th century the town drew anthropologists such as Robert Redfield and artists such as the surrealist Wolfgang Paalen. Tourism is now the main source of income, alongside farming and crafts.