Ancient Mexican city has much to offer today

CHOLULA, Mexico — A lot has changed since this town was founded on a flat plain in the valley of Mexico.

But no wonder; that founding was 1,800 years ago. Cholula's residents have learned over the years how to blend their ancient history with their modern lives to create a community that is deeply religious yet modern — and often very noisy with fireworks, church bells and the music of religious processions.

Cholula, in central Mexico, is said to be the oldest continuously occupied town in all of North America. Anthropologists and town fathers say the town was officially founded in the year A.D. 620. And they say people have been living there even longer — possibly since around the year A.D. 200.

The ancient town has lots to offer visitors. Just a dozen miles from Puebla, Mexico's fourth-largest city, Cholula has several dozen elaborately decorated churches; a huge pyramid with a church on top and tunnels throughout; a yearly symphony of church bells; a religious fair that brings in an enormous market of arts and crafts; and, on a clear day, the sight of three volcanoes, one of which regularly belches smoke.

The churches are a spectacular attraction. Local lore has it that Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez ordered 365 Christian churches to be built when he arrived in Cholula around 1500 — a church for every day of the year, as a means of promoting Catholicism. Only about 175 churches ended up being built in Cholula and neighboring villages, said Timothy James Knab, an anthropology professor at the University de las Americas in nearby Puebla who teaches a class about Cholula. But almost all the churches use fireworks to mark religious festivals, and almost all have multiple bells, so the sound of pealing bells and the sight of powerful pyrotechnics is a regular feature of life in town.

The bed-shaking fireworks can be a surprise to visitors.

"They do have a constant need for explosions," said P.J. Ryan, 70, of Wheaton, Md., who spent three months in Cholula last winter. "Usually (when there are fireworks) there's an audience, but around here that doesn't seem to matter."

Then there is the pyramid, Tepanapa. Now mostly covered by earth and plants, the huge adobe structure looks at first like a pyramid-shaped hill rising out of the flat lands near the center of town. The pyramid was built by the Cholulteca people during the centuries leading up to A.D. 850, and features a large church on top, rebuilt several times over the past 400 years, that is still in active use. Visitors who are reasonably fit can climb the long, wide, winding stairs to the church and enjoy the views from the stone plaza on top of the pyramid — cultivated fields stretching out in one direction, and the city of Puebla in the other.