Xalapa, Mexico

Xalapa or Jalapa (English: , Spanish: [xaˈlapa] (listen)), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (IPA: [xaˈlapa enˈrikes]), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which it serves as municipal seat reported a population of 413,136. The municipality has an area of 118.45 km². Xalapa lies near the geographic center of the state and is the second-largest city in the state after the city of Veracruz to the southeast.

The name Xalapa comes from the Classical Nahuatl roots xālli (pronounced [ʃaːlːi], 'sand') and āpan ([aːpan], 'place of water'), which means approximately 'spring in the sand'. It's classically pronounced [ʃalaːpan] in Nahuatl, although the final /n/ is often omitted. This was adopted into Spanish as Xalapa.