Quiahuiztlan

Quiahuiztlan occupies a terrace on the flank of the Cerro de los Metates, a hulking rock that rises straight out of the coastal plain with the Gulf spread below - a defensive site so obvious that the Totonac built here and the Spanish, arriving in 1519, founded their first town, Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, on the shore directly beneath it. What draws visitors up the hill now is a burial ground unlike any other in Mexico: several hundred small stone tombs, each built as a miniature temple, complete with stairway, balustrades and roof, standing in rows across the terrace - a scale model city of the dead, its occupants once interred with offerings inside. Plazas, a ball court and platforms complete the site. The walk up is short but steep and hot, and the payoff is the combination: rows of little temples in the foreground, the massive rock behind, and the sea and coastal dunes below, with the wind that gives the place its name - "place of rain" - usually blowing.

History

The settlement stands on a large hill overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and Hernán Cortés founded the first Spanish colony in Mexico, Villa Rica de la Veracruz, near it; the site was excavated by Alfonso Medellín Zenil and Ramón Arellanos Melgarejo of the national institute of anthropology (Wikipedia, Totonac Quiahuiztlan).

What to look for

• The tomb rows - hundreds of miniature stone temples.
• The cliff terrace - the site's platform under the great rock.
• The Gulf view - coast and dunes far below.
• The plazas and ball court - the settlement's civic core.

When to go

November to April for cooler air; mornings for the light and the climb. The site is quiet on almost any day.

Things to know

The approach road is steep and rough in places, and the final walk is uphill in the sun. Facilities are minimal. Signage is limited; a guide helps.

Nearby

Villa Rica's beach and the first Spanish settlement site sit below; Cempoala's ruins lie half an hour south.

Key facts