Ixmiquilpan

Ixmiquilpan is the main town of the Mezquital Valley and the cultural heart of the Hñähñu, the Otomí people who have lived in this dry valley since long before the Toltecs. Its Nahuatl name refers to the purslane plants that grew here. Augustinian friars founded the town around 1550 with the church and convent of San Miguel Arcángel, and in 1655 a bridge was built over the Tula River to the barrio on the other bank, still known as La Otra Banda.

The church is the reason Ixmiquilpan is famous. Along the nave runs one of the most remarkable mural cycles of sixteenth-century Mexico, painted by indigenous artists: warriors dressed as eagles, jaguars and coyotes, armed with obsidian-edged clubs and shields, battle semi-naked archers and fantastic creatures among European acanthus scrolls. Historians link the scenes to the Chichimec War, when Otomí fighters served on the frontier, and they are a vivid example of how native and European imagery fused after the conquest.

The town is also a busy market center, known for lamb barbacoa served from early morning, maguey-fiber crafts and fine objects inlaid with abalone shell. It is the gateway to the valley's many thermal balnearios.