The state of Puebla borders the states of Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, México, Tlaxcala, and Morelos to the west, and Guerrero and Oaxaca to the south. The state covers an area of about 33,919 km². The terrain is mostly mountainous. In 2003 the estimated population was 5,377,800 people.

In addition to the city of Puebla, the state includes the cities of Tehuacán, Atlixco, Cholula, and the towns of Acatlán, Chignahuapan, Chipilo, Ciudad Serdán, Cuetzalán, Izúcar de Matamoros and Teziutlán.

Municipalities
Puebla is divided into 217 municipalities (municipios), 7 socio-economic regions, 15 federal districts and 26 local districts. See municipalities of Puebla.

Education
Some of universities located in puebla are: Universidad de las Américas, Universidad Iberoamericana, BUAP, UPAEP and ITESM.

The city of Puebla – known more formally as Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza or less formally as La Angelópolis or Puebla de los Ángeles – is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name, and the fourth largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey respectively.

Puebla is located in the Puebla Valley, surrounded by volcanoes and snow-capped mountains, slightly over 110 kilometres south-east of Mexico City. The city proper in 2005 had a population of 1.5 million people, while the metropolitan area had a population of 2.1 million.

History

Malinche in the backgroundThe city of Puebla was founded on April 16, 1531 as "La Puebla de los Ángeles". It was the first city in central Mexico founded by the Spanish conquistadors that was not built upon the ruins of a conquered Amerindian settlement. Its strategic location, half-way between the port of Veracruz and Mexico City, made it the second most important city during the colonial period. During the seventeenth century, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz lived in the city until her confrontation with the Bishop of Puebla.

Four decades after Mexico's independence, General Ignacio Zaragoza's army defeated French expeditionary forces near Puebla on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla. It was after this battle that the name of the city was changed to "Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza".

In the late nineteenth and early twentietn centuries a number of European immigrants came to the city, mainly from Germany, Italy and Spain. Today, the Colonia Humboldt neighborhood shows the influence of the local German population in its architecture, traditions and festivals like the local Oktoberfest, as well as in the town of Chipilo, now absorbed by the metropolitan area of the city, where people speak a dialect of Venetian known as the Chipilo Venetian dialect. The folkloric Mexican women's dress known as China Poblana was created in Puebla. As well, the "Talavera Poblana" is a fine earthenware of colonial origin still made in the city, Its a unique motif to Puebla in general; dineware, plant pots, churches and even streets may be lined with tiles of Talavera.

Economy

Monument at Ave. JuárezPuebla is an industrial city, mainly in the textile sector. Puebla is also home to the Mexican headquarters and only North American manufacturing site of Volkswagen, the last site to manufacture VW Beetles. Production of the Beetle was discontinued in late 2003. Other German and French manufacturing companies operate in the city, most of them outsourcers for Volkswagen.

Since 2003 Puebla has served as the interim headquarters of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It has submitted its candidacy to serve as the permanent headquarters if the FTAA is ever ratified.

Education
With more than 20 universities, Puebla is second only to Mexico City in the number of universities within its borders. Many of the top universities in the country are located in its metropolitan area, including the state university, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (UDLAP), and the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) Puebla Campus. Both UDLAP and ITESM are usually ranked among the highest in the country and both belong to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in the United States.

Other important academic institutions in Puebla include the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA), Puebla Campus , Universidad Anáhuac Puebla Campus, <space>and the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), a private university founded three decades ago by a group of seceding students and professors from the BUAP.

Sports

Cuauhtémoc Soccer StadiumPuebla has two professional soccer teams, "Puebla FC" and "Lobos BUAP", both in the lower divisions of the league. The biggest soccer stadium in the city, "Cuauhtémoc", with a capacity of 45,000, was built in 1968 as a second soccer field for the 1968 Olympic Games. Matches for the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups were also played in Cuauhtémoc Stadium.

Puebla has two professional baseball teams, the "Pericos" and "Tigres". Puebla, along with Monterrey, have popular baseball teams in the Mexican Baseball League.

Puebla, through the conurbated area of Cholula, has one college American football team, the "Aztecas" of the Universidad de las Américas. The Aztecas have won the championship three times since the creation of the Mexican College Football Organization (ONEFA).

Cuisine
Puebla's food culture, known as Cocina Poblana, is popular all over Mexico. Puebla is considered the home of mole, a rich, spicy sauce containing chocolate, cinnamon and nuts, as well as different types of hot peppers. Served with chicken, mole has become the most renowned dish of Puebla's cuisine. Camote, sweet potatoes cooked in a stove and topped with creme are a traditional sweet. Rompope is a liquor based on egg yolk and vanilla, created many years ago by Puebla's nuns. Chiles en nogada is a dish of stuffed chillies with meat, fruit, and topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds; it is prepared mainly on Mexican Independence Day. The Chalupa, a thick tortilla sometimes filled with beans and topped with salsa, crumbled cheese and onion and widely known in Mexico as a fast food is also from the city. Other traditional sweets include the sweets from Santa Clara (dulces de Santa Clara), crystallized fruits, and milk candies.

Tourist attractions

Puebla's Zócalo
Downtown streetImportant locations include "La Capilla del Rosario" a chapel inlaid with gold, El Barrio del Artista ("The Artist's Neighborhood") where local arts are produced and the Centro y Zócalo (downtown) where the Cathedral of Puebla and the Palacio Municipal are located.

Red double-decker buses, known as "turibuses", give tourists an opportunity to enjoy the city's architecture, museums and monuments located at the historical downtown. One of the most famous museums in the city is the Amparo Museum. Another tourist attraction is the Africam Safari zoo, intended to recreate a safari experience.

Also, worth visiting is the pyramid of Cholula, a city within the metropolitan area of Puebla. Cholula was one of the most important cities under the Aztec empire, and its pyramid is the largest in the New World. The town, with a population of only 200,000 inhabitants, is said to boast a church for every day of the year, albeit some churches are quite small and even makeshift.

Finally, the Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Mexicanos (National Museum of Mexican Railroads), located in the old Mexicano station, houses a collection of many unique specimens, including steam engines, passenger coaches, cabooses and diesel engines. Most notably it has a pair of PA1 diesel engines, the last specimens of their kind, with one of them still in working condition (the DH-19).