Zempoala

Zempoala lies in the highlands of central Mexico, in what is now Hidalgo. Fields, hills and water sources formed the setting for agricultural communities and routes connecting neighbouring districts. In the precolonial period the locality came under the rule of Texcoco.

Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century brought colonial administration, Christian institutions and new demands for labour, while disease severely disrupted Indigenous communities. The great aqueduct associated with Zempoala was built in that century, linking water supply to the transformation of the colonial landscape. Farming and established community ties continued through these changes.