The municipal territory is located at a southern pass leading out of the Mezquital Valley about 288 km (179 mi) northeast of the state capital of Toluca.

The Gran Canal de Desagüe is an artificial channel that crosses Apaxco, and was named Xothé river in the Otomi language.

In the center of Apaxco de Ocampo is a low relief known as El Hoyo (the hole), which according to popular belief is the crater of a meteorite; the Aztec people called the depression apatztli in the Nahuatl language.

[6] Apaxco municipality is a rural territory of the Central Mexican Plateau, in the south of the Mezquital Valley, and has a semi-desert climate.

Since the area is mainly semi-desert land with calcium stones, the plants consist of cacti and trees with low water needs.

To the south is Cerro Mesa Ahumada with cacomistle, skunk, gopher, Virginia opossum, rabbit, and Mexican gray squirrel and to the north the Sierra de Tetzontlalpan is home to bobcat, coyote, and hare.

[10][11] Apaxco was the place where they celebrated the second new fire before continuing their way south, towards Ecatepec, ending their long pilgrimage on the banks of the hill of Chapultepec.

Apaxco, Tula and Ajoloapan were places rich in lime which was a very coveted mineral for building, and was used as a tax payment to the Aztec empire.

In colonial times, Apaxco entered the system of encomienda imposed by the Spanish conquerors, and came under the command of Cristóbal Hernandez Mosquera in 1530.

In 1927, the legal suit succeeded in returning several hectares benefiting eight hundred people, also granting them water rights for agricultural needs.

[citation needed] The Arco Norte (Northern Arc) is a principal highway that crosses the northeast part of Apaxco.

The west road, Huehuetoca–Apaxco number 6 cross Santa María, junctions to Conejos in Atotonilco de Tula, with connection to the Tula–Jorobas highway.

During the first week of October, las Fiestas Franciscanas is held, with a procession through the main streets, music, games, and pyrotechnics.

This chapel, constructed in the Spanish period, is a small Catholic church occupied by religious priests for the purpose of evangelizing the indigenous people.

The hills of Apaxco were used to pasture cows and sheep; the Spanish had very large haciendas and employed indigenous people as vaqueros or herdsman, who became excellent horsemen.