ORIZABA, or ORIZAVA, a city of Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, is situated at a height of 3975 feet above the sea in a well-wooded valley 65 miles south-west of Vera Cruz, on one of the two high roads between that city and Mexico, and since 1872 on the Vera Cruz and Mexico Railway. It is a thriving place of 16,000 inhabitants, has a good exchange, a theatre, and two hospitals, spins cotton, and manufactures cotton and woollen cloth, and trades in tobacco, sugar, rum, and other local products. Originally called Izhuatlan, Orizaba is one of the oldest cities of Mexico. At the time of the Spanish conquest it formed part of the Aztec kingdom. In 1521 the natives massacred a large number of Spaniards. In 1862 Orizaba was the headquarters of the French army, which inflicted a defeat on the Mexicans on the outskirts of the city. Six miles north of the city stands the Pico de Orizaba or Citlaltepetl, " The Mountain of the Star," an extinct volcano 17,665 feet high, and thus one of the loftiest summits in the continent. It was ascended by W. F. Reynolds of the United States Topographical Engineers in 1848.