Cempohuallan

Cempohuallan was a Totonac polity centred on Cempoala, near the mouth of the Actopan on the Veracruz coast. Its aqueducts watered fields and its temples and palaces were faced with shell lime.

In the 15th century Moctezuma I's Aztec armies conquered the city and demanded tribute, including people for sacrifice and enslavement. In 1519 its ruler Xicomecoatl, called the Fat Chief by the Spanish, welcomed Cortés; the Totonac league then joined the Spanish march on Tenochtitlan. Under colonial rule its people were resettled; the epidemic of 1575 to 1577 emptied the city, whose survivors moved to Xalapa.