Travel Guide Cholula

Located 12 km from Puebla, Cholula is a small and pleasant town where many students live. The city's market is a must-see to smell the hundreds of aromas of the moles that populate the stalls. If the enormous Convento de San Gabriel Arcángel (founded in the sixteenth century) stands in the plaza, the city owes its fame to its archaeological site, whose name comes from the Nahuatl Tollan-Chollolan-Tlachihualtépetl, which means "the city of those who fled and where the handmade mountain is located". The Mixtec settlement of Cholula dates back to 500 B.C., and during the heyday of Teotihuacan the city already became an important trade center. After a relative decline linked to the territorial reorganization of the region following the fall of Teotihuacan, the city was invaded and conquered in the 10th century by Toltec inhabitants expelled from the city of Tula, which revived the activity and dynamism of the city. Then the Mexicas dominated the region and Cholula paid tribute to the great Tenochtitlán, which again turned it into a military ally to counter the legendary resistance of Tlaxcala