Yohualichan archaeological zone.

Yohualichan comes from the Nahuatl language and means "place of the Night." Its first inhabitants speak Totonac, so it is likely that the current name is a translation of an older but with the same meaning.

The area is of particular interest because its remains prove the dominant presence of coastal groups in this region of the mountains, they should have left Yohualichan before the advance of militant groups in central Mexico.

The site was for ceremonial use and probably had an influence on others and who emerged as a rallying point to make some kind of cult, even after abandonment occurred, probably during the eleventh or twelfth centuries. No precise data about it, however, be inferred that the area was gradually dropping.

This ceremonial center has been called the "Little Tajin" for its resemblance to the archaeological zone of Veracruz.

Yohualichan archaeological zone.

This archaeological site is an important link in the prehispanic history of Puebla, which was inhabited by the Otomi and Totonac groups thought to have been the same who built the twin city of El Tajin in Veracruz. It is situated 7 km east of Cuetzalan.

About Cuetzalan are Cuichatl lakes, where you can swim, and an extensive system of caverns, which highlights the cave of Chivostoc or Amocuali, ie the Devil and the Ampolihui.

Believed to have been founded in the early Classic period (0 to 900 AD) and was abandoned in the middle Postclassic (900-1519 AD) due to the early expansion of the center Nahua groups, starting with the Toltec conquest then the chichimeca and finally the terrible economic domination of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, who threw to the coast the last vestiges Totonac area.

Yohualichan constructions have very characteristic features such as the alignments of the different niches that top bodies of pyramidal structures. You may also notice that some of the niches are double, that is, some of them contain other inside. Some of these elements still retain remnants of the original stucco that covered them. The niches were covered with flat overhanging rock, a feature that gives them a very unique look.

One of the most important ritual activities carried out regularly on the site was the ball game, for which the buildings were made parallel and elongated, the south side of the larger whole

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