Geography
Tlaxcala covers 3,991 km², the smallest state in Mexico and about a fifth of one per cent of national territory; only Mexico City is smaller among the 32 federal entities. Its 1,342,977 residents live at unusual altitude: almost the whole state lies between 2,200 and 2,600 m, on the block of high tableland that separates the Valley of Mexico from the Puebla basin. Nights are cold and frost is common from November to February, which shortens the growing season and explains why barley for the breweries and maguey for pulque have long done better here than tropical crops.
Two upland masses frame the plateau. La Malinche, or Matlalcuéyetl, rises to 4,461 m on the south-eastern boundary with Puebla and is the fifth-highest peak in Mexico, a dormant stratovolcano protected as a national park since 1938. In the north the Sierra de Tlaxco and the ranges around Huamantla close off the state towards Hidalgo. Between them runs the Río Zahuapan, the state's main watercourse, which gathers almost all of Tlaxcala's drainage and joins the Atoyac just over the Puebla line on its way to the Balsas basin and the Pacific.
The state is divided into 60 municipalities, several of them only a few square kilometres in size, and it has the second-highest population density in the country after Mexico City. Much of the south and west is continuous with the Puebla conurbation: San Pablo del Monte, Papalotla, Xicohtzinco and Zacatelco function as suburbs of the neighbouring city rather than as separate towns. The north, around Tlaxco and Terrenate, is still farmland and old pulque haciendas.
Main cities
No settlement in the state reaches 110,000 people, and the capital is not the largest municipality. Figures are INEGI 2020 municipal counts, rounded to the nearest thousand.
| Municipality | Population (2020) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Huamantla | 100,000 | East, under La Malinche; August sawdust carpets |
| Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl | 96,000 | Capital, 2,230 m; ex-convento of 1537 |
| Apizaco | 81,000 | Rail junction and commercial centre |
| San Pablo del Monte | 79,000 | Southern edge, part of the Puebla conurbation |
| Santa Ana Chiautempan | 71,000 | Wool textiles and sarapes |
| Calpulalpan | 48,000 | Western tip, on the State of Mexico line |
| Zacatelco | 45,000 | South, on Highway 119 |
| Tlaxco | 42,000 | Northern sierra, pulque haciendas and cheese |
| Yauhquemehcan | 40,000 | Adjoins Apizaco |
Neighbouring states
Only three: Puebla, Hidalgo, State of Mexico. Puebla accounts for most of the perimeter, curving around the north-east, east and south, so that Tlaxcala is close to an enclave within it; Hidalgo takes a short stretch of the northern boundary; and the State of Mexico meets the narrow western tip near Calpulalpan. The state sits inside Central Mexico and its economy is tied to the Puebla metropolitan area, whose built-up edge crosses the border.
Getting there
Tlaxcala has no commercial airport. The nearest is Puebla's Hermanos Serdán International (PBC) at Huejotzingo, about 40 km south-west of the capital and in fact closer to parts of Tlaxcala than to central Puebla; Mexico City's Benito Juárez (MEX) is 120 km away and Felipe Ángeles (NLU) about 130 km. The airports map lists the codes.
By road from Mexico City, the usual route is Highway 150D east towards Puebla, then the Highway 117 spur north into the capital — 120 km in about an hour and three-quarters. Highway 136 crosses the state from Calpulalpan through Apizaco and Huamantla and continues east towards Perote and Xalapa in Veracruz. Highway 119 links Tlaxcala city south to Puebla in 35 km. The Arco Norte toll road clips the north of the state, letting freight bypass Mexico City between the Querétaro and Puebla corridors, and Apizaco remains the junction of the old Mexico–Veracruz railway. See the road map and, for La Malinche and the peaks on the western horizon, the volcanoes map.
Questions about Tlaxcala
Where is Tlaxcala on the map of Mexico?
In the centre of the country, about 120 km east of Mexico City on the high plateau between the Sierra Nevada and the La Malinche volcano. Puebla wraps around it on the north, east and south.
Is Tlaxcala the smallest state in Mexico?
Yes. At 3,991 km² it is the smallest of the 31 states; only Mexico City, a federal entity rather than a state, covers less ground.
Why was Tlaxcala important in the Spanish conquest?
The Tlaxcaltec republic had resisted the Aztec Triple Alliance and was never absorbed by it. After fighting Cortés in September 1519 its four lordships allied with him, and the tens of thousands of Tlaxcaltec troops in that alliance were decisive in the fall of Tenochtitlán in August 1521.
What is there to see in Tlaxcala?
The Cacaxtla murals, painted around 650–900 AD and uncovered in 1975; the neighbouring Xochitécatl pyramids; the 18th-century Basilica of Ocotlán; and the ex-convento de San Francisco of 1537, among the oldest monastery buildings in the Americas. See the archaeological sites map.