By the time the Spanish arrived, Cholula was a major religious and mercantile center, with the Quetzalcoatl Temple one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the central Mexican highlands. Hernán Cortés estimated that the city had 430 temples and about 20,000 homes in the center of the city with another 20,000 on the periphery. Cortés was attracted to the pastureland of the valley area, but while there was a great deal of irrigated farms, the city had a population of about 100,000 and overpopulation meant that many poor people often lacked food.