into three sub entities, roughly corresponding to the municipalities of San Pedro Cholula, San Andrés Cholula and Santa Isabel Cholula. However, only the first two are considered to be part of the modern city of Cholula. San Andrés is defined by the area east of the Great Pyramid and includes it. The city was important as a mercantile crossroads and a religious center, although religious practice was centered on the Quetzalcoatl Temple in San Pedro rather than on the Pyramid, which was overgrown... Hernán Cortés noted he could see about 2,000 houses in the city with as many temples as days of the year. It had a population of about 100,000, however, the area was overpopulated leading to chronic hunger among the poor. During the Conquest, the Spanish would kill about 6,000 residents of the city in an event known as the Cholula Massacre. It is from this episode that the 365 churches legend evolves. San Andres was the encomienda of Andrés de Tapia for a very short time, and then it was turned over to Rodrigo Rangel. In 1529, it was divided between Diego Fernandez de Proaño and Diego Pacheco. In 1531, the Cholula area was converted into a "corregimiento" or area under direct control of the Spanish Crown. In 1537, Cholula became an independent city. and granted its own coat of arms by Charlves V. in 1540. San Andrés as an entity was recognized as early as 1548, when records show eight communities governed by it. Organization of what is now the municipal territory changed over time, but San Andrés remained an independent political entity from the 18th century on. The Spanish built nearby Puebla to overshadow Cholula and the city never recovered its former status. An epidemic wiped out much of its indigenous population in the 1540s. Over the colonial period, forty-seven churches were constructed in the city, with San Andrés as an independent parish by 1640. In 1714, it was definitively separated from San Pedro as an "Indian Republic" along with San Bernardino Tlaxcalancingo, Santa Clara Ocoyucan and San Antonio Cacalotepec. This separation would cause political and economic problems between the two halves of the city, but still coexisting in matters of religion. The evangelization of San Andrés also differed from neighboring San Pedro. It remained indigenous while San Pedro quickly became mestizo. Also in the early colonial period, this part of the city has enough