Cholula

The Great Pyramid of Cholula contains more material than any other pyramid anywhere, roughly four and a half million cubic metres, built up in stages over more than a thousand years until it stood some sixty-six metres high. By the time the Spanish arrived it had been abandoned long enough to be overgrown, and they took it for a hill; a church was raised on top in the sixteenth century and is still there, painted yellow, visible for miles across the valley with Popocatépetl smoking behind it. Archaeologists have driven kilometres of tunnels into the mound, a short stretch of which visitors can walk. Cholula is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the Americas.

What you actually see

• The tunnels - a walkable stretch of the excavation galleries inside the mound.
• The church on the summit - a yellow chapel on top of the pyramid.
• The volcano view - Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl from the summit terrace.
• The excavated courtyards - exposed plazas and altars at the base.

When to go

October to May is dry and gives the clearest volcano views, which are the main reason to climb. Mornings are best, as haze builds through the day. The site closes earlier than the church, so do the tunnels first. Puebla's food is the obvious pairing.

Honest expectations

There is little to see of the pyramid itself, since it is a grass hill with a church on it, and the tunnels are a short, low, dimly lit walk rather than a grand interior. The town below is busy with student nightlife. Volcano views depend entirely on the haze, which often wins.

Nearby

Puebla is twenty minutes east; the Popocatépetl monasteries are within an hour.