The municipality covers an area of 552.52 km².

The Spanish discovered silver lodes here in 1531, which started commercial silver mining in the area.

Along with Amatepec the area became known as the "Provincia de la Plata".

Johann Engel was one of the Germans to settle in the area in 1536, and introduced litharge as a flux in the smelting of the ore. Amalgamation was used on a large scale in 1556.

This article about a location in the state of Mexico is a stub.