Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about 10 kilometers (6 mi) inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth-largest city in Tamaulipas, with a population of 314,418 in the city proper and 929,174 in the metropolitan area.

During the period of Mexico’s first oil boom in the early 20th century, the city was the “chief oil-exporting port of the Americas” and the second-busiest in the world, yielding great profits that were invested in the city’s famous architecture, often compared to that of Venice and New Orleans.[2] The first oil well in Mexico was drilled near Tampico in 1901 at Ébano.