El Tajín
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 Location within Mesoamerica
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| Location | Veracruz, Mexico |
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| Region | Veracruz |
| Coordinates | 20°26′53.01″N 97°22′41.67″W / 20.4480583°N 97.3782417°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Early Classic to Late Postclassic |
| Cultures | Classic Veracruz |
| Official name | El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Designated | 1992 (16th session) |
| Reference no. | 631 |
| State Party | Mexico |
| Region | Latin America and the Caribbean |
El Tajín is a pre-Columbian archeological site in southern Mexico and is one of the largest and most important cities of the Classic era of Mesoamerica. A part of the Classic Veracruz culture, El Tajín flourished from 600 to 1200 C.E. and during this time numerous temples, palaces, ballcourts, and pyramids were built. From the time the city fell, in 1230, to 1785, no European seems to have known of its existence, until a government inspector chanced upon the Pyramid of the Niches.
El Tajín was named a World Heritage site in 1992, due to its cultural importance and its architecture. This architecture includes the use of decorative niches and cement in forms unknown in the rest of Mesoamerica. Its best-known monument is the Pyramid of the Niches, but other important monuments include the Arroyo Group, the North and South Ballcourts and the palaces of Tajín Chico. In total there have been 20 ballcourts discovered at this site, (the last 3 being discovered in March 2013). Since the 1970s, El Tajin has been the most important archeological site in Veracruz for tourists, attracting over 650,000 visitors a year.
It is also the site of the annual Cumbre Tajin Festival, which occurs each March featuring indigenous and foreign cultural events as well as concerts by popular musicians.
The site is located in Mexico in the highlands of the municipality of Papantla in modern-day Veracruz, not far from the city of Poza Rica, which lies northwest of the port and city of Veracruz. The city is set in the low rolling mountains that lead from the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Gulf coast near the Tecolutla River. In ancient times, this city was located in the northeast corner of what is called Mesoamerica, and controlled an area from between the Cazones and Tecolutla Rivers to the modern state of Puebla. The main city is defined by two streams which merge to form the Tlahuanapa Arroyo, a tributary of the Tecolutla River. These two streams provided the population’s potable water. Most of the buildings are at the southern end, where the land is relatively flat and the two streams converge. The site extends to the northwest where terraces where constructed to place more buildings, mostly for the city’s elite. However the city also had communities located on the hills east and west of the main city, with mostly lower-class dwellings. Total site extends for 1,056 hectares (4.08 sq mi).
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