Cholula

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Cholula

Cholula is a city in the Mexican state of Puebla

Puebla

Puebla is a Political divisions of Mexico located in the center east of the country, to the east of Mexico City.The state of Puebla borders the states of Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo , Mexico State, Tlaxcala, and Morelos to the west, and Guerrero and Oaxaca to the south....
. The official, though little used, full name of the city is Cholula de Rivadavia. The city of Cholula is divided into two municipalities, San Andrés Cholula and San Pedro Cholula

San Pedro Cholula

San Pedro Cholula is a Municipalities of Mexico in the States of Mexico of Puebla, central Mexico. The municipality incorporates most of the urban areas of the city of Cholula de Rivadabia , which is the San Pedro Cholula's most populous locality and is the seat of the municipal government ....
, which are considered to be part of the conurbation of the city of Puebla

Metropolitan area of Puebla

The Metropolitan area of Puebla or Greater Puebla is the fourth largest agglomeration in Mexico with a population of 2.109 million . This agglomeration includes 10 municipalities of the state of Puebla, and 13 municipalities of the state of Tlaxcala....
, and a third, more rural municipality called Santa Isabel Cholula.

Cholula is located about 15 km west of the city of Puebla

Puebla, Puebla

The city of Puebla, officially Heroic Puebla de Zaragoza is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Puebla. The city has a population of 1,399,519 ....
, at an approximate elevation of 2135 meters (about 7000 ft) above sea level

Sea level

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History

Cholula, or in Nahuatl Cholollan, was an important city of pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all archaeology of the Americas in the history of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the Americas continents....
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
, dating back to at least the 2nd century BC, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier.

Cholula was a major center contemporary with Teotihuacan

Teotihuacán

Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest Mesoamerican pyramid built in the pre-Columbian Americas....
and seems to have avoided, at least partially, that city's fate of violent destruction at the end of the Mesoamerican Classic

Mesoamerican chronology

Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into a number of named successive eras or periods, from the earliest evidence of human habitation through to the early Colonial period which followed the Spanish colonization of the Americas....
period. Cholula thus remained a regional center of importance, enough so that, at the time of the fall of the Aztec

Aztec

Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology....
empire, Aztec princes were still formally anointed by a Cholulan priest in a manner reminiscent, and perhaps even analogous, to the way some Mayan princes appear to have come to Teotihuacan in search of some sort of formalization of their rulership.

At the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés

Hern?n Cort?s de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marqu?s del Valle de Oaxaca was a Spain conquistador who led an expedition that caused the conquest of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the Crown of Castile, in the early 16th century....
Cholula was second only to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlan was a Nahua peoples altepetl located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. Founded in 1325, it became the seat of Aztec Empire in the 15th century, until being Fall of Tenochtitlan....
(modern Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country; the most populous city with over 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008....
) as the largest city in central Mexico, possibly with a population of up to 100,000 people. In addition to the great temple of Quetzalcoatl and various palaces, the city had 365 temples.

During the Spanish Colonial period, however, Cholula was overtaken in importance by the nearby city of Puebla

Puebla

Great Pyramid of Cholula

Cholula is most famous as the site of the Great Pyramid of Cholula

Great Pyramid of Cholula

The Great Pyramid of Cholula or Tlachihualtepetl is a huge complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the world's largest monument and largest Mesoamerican pyramids by volume....
, the largest man-made pyramid and monument by volume in the world.

Etymology

The original Nahuatl name was Cholollan. Probably composed of the two roots "choloa" "to flee" or its nominalized form "chololiztli" "flight" and the locative suffix -tlan meaning "place of" - making the names meaning something close to "place of flight".

It is possible that this meaning has to do with the original inhabitants of the city having been forced to leave by the expanding Nahua

Nahua

The Nahuas are a group of Indigenous peoples in Mexico peoples of Mexico. Their language of Uto-Aztecan affiliation is called Nahuatl and consists of many more Nahuatl dialects and variants, a number of which are mutually unintelligible....
s. Some historians have posited that Cholula was originally inhabited by the Oto-Manguean

Oto-Manguean languages

Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but Oto-Manguean languages that are now extinct language were spoken as far south as Nicaragua....
Chorotega

Chorotega

Chorotega The Oto-Manguean languages are spoken mainly in Mexico and it is thought that the Chorotega moved south from Mexico together with the speakers of Subtiaba and Chiapanec well before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas....
people who were driven from central Mexico with the incursions of the Nahua

Nahua

Modern Cholula

As part of the Puebla

Puebla, Puebla

The city of Puebla, officially Heroic Puebla de Zaragoza is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Puebla. The city has a population of 1,399,519 ....
urban area, Cholula is famed locally for its lively night life. Its town centre and zócalo
Zócalo

In many cities in Mexico, a z?calo is the main plaza or square, set in the heart of the town. This is unique to Mexico and came about because of the naming of the main plaza of Mexico City....
area are filled with a wide range of bars and restaurants that are popular with young people from local areas and especially from the nearby Universidad de las Américas

Fundación Universidad de las Américas, Puebla

The Universidad de las Am?ricas , is one of the most important private universities in Mexico. Its academic programs, both in the undergraduate and graduate schools have national and international prestige....
(University of the Americas, or UDLA for short). The city is also the namesake for Cholula hot sauce

Cholula hot sauce

Cholula hot sauce is a commercial brand of chile pepper-based hot sauce, manufactured in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Its large round wooden cap makes its packaging unique among commercially-prepared hot sauces....
.

External links

Official website
Official website
Official website
, Puebla state government
(University in San Andrés Cholula)