The municipality is located at a southern pass leading out of the Mezquital Valley to 86 kilometers north of Mexico City and about 180 km northeast of the state capital of Pachuca de Soto.

[2] The town of Atotonilco de Tula, a municipal seat, has governing jurisdiction over the following communities: Vito, Boxfi, and Progreso.

[citation needed] The highest mountain the Picacho in the Sierra Tezontlalpa, it rises 2,800 metres (9,200 ft) above sea level,[4] on the border between the municipalities of San Agustín Tlaxiaca and Atitalaquia.

Atotonilco de Tula municipality is a rural territory of Central Mexican Plateau, here there is a diversity in plants and animals of semi-desertic climate (Mezquital Valley).

The native animals are cacomistle, skunk, gopher, bobcat, falcon, Virginia opossum, rabbit, Mexican gray squirrel, turkey, colibri, turkey vulture, northern mockingbird, rattlesnake, pine snake, xincoyote, red warbler, rufous-crowned sparrow, lesser roadrunner, great horned owl, frog, toad, red ant, bee, and others.