This Totonac city was founded 1,800 years ago in the fertile lands of the region of Cuetzalan, in the present-day state of Puebla. The Totonacs occupied it until 800 AD, achieving a high level of development. They built extensive plazas - notably a square one - on top of natural platforms. They also built majestic pyramid structures, one of which surprises with its numerous niches, like the principal structure at El Tajín, and it has a ballcourt measuring nearly 330 feet long.

The original inhabitants were probably forced to abandon the site and go back to their place of origin in modern day Veracruz as the result of an invasion by Toltec peoples around 900. Subsequently, around 1200 a new Chichimec invasion conquered the place and the neighboring district, marking the start of a general decline, which continued until the arrival of the Spanish. The Nahua pochtecs (traders) called the place “the house of the night,” perhaps because of the numerous caves dotted around the district. This impressive city still holds many secrets from archeologists.