Yohualichán

For those interested in archaeology a visit to the excavation site of Yohualichán (Náhuatl: "house of night") is recommended. It can be reached in about 50 minutes from Cuetzalán using a cross-country vehicle. This cult centre constructed on four different levels has up to now been the only famous place outside El Tajín to have been built in the same style. Today there are in total five buildings visible. The most worth seeing are the pyramids, decorated with niche friezes, one of them a seven-storey pyramic, and the ball court which, at 90 m (295 ft) in length, is one of the largest in Meso-America. Since this place was, like El Tajín, inhabited by Totonacs when the Spanish arrived, the large buildings were for a long time assumed to be the work of this people. Today, however, we still do not know for sure who the builders were of these sites, which date from the Classic period (AD 300-900). The finds made so far have not indicated that Yohualichán approached the same cultural level as El Tajín and this has led many people to assume that it was founded much earlier.