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The Ruins At Zempoala, Just Up The Road
A particularly interesting small ruins is just up the highway running north along the coast. Zempoala is a favored fieldtrip for the school’s students. Reports back to us at the end of the day are...
always highly positive and usually robustly excited.
Zempoala is considered to be the capital of the Totonac empire. It dates from the 1200AD. It may have had as many as thirty thousand inhabitants at its peak. The Totonacs suffered at the hands of the Toltec and later the Aztecs.
Cortez met with the Fat Chief of the Totonacs and forged a union that led the Totonacs into battle along side Cortez’s conquistadores. Their march of warfare ended with the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and with the capture of the great Aztec chief, Montezuma.
Much of Zempoala remains to be excavated. Trails leave the restored portion and head out all directions into sugar cane fields. This not-major ruin of Mexico and its limited population had a major effect on Mexico’s history.
Eric Langner March 4, 2007 12:58 PM