TEMBLEQUE, Francisco (tem-blay'-keh), Spanish architect, born in Tembleque, province of Toledo, in the first half of the 16th century; died in Puebla, Mexico, near the end of that century. He entered the Franciscan order, came to New Spain about 1550, and soon learned the Aztec language, being venerated by the natives as their best friend. Having studied architecture and hydraulics in Spain, he made use of his knowledge to remedy the want of potable water in the towns of Otumba and Cempoala, and constructed an aqueduct that carried the water of a mountain-stream for the distanee of fifty miles to Otumba. Notwithstanding the opposition of experts, who declared the work impossible, Tembleque persisted in his course, and at the end of sixteen years finished the work, which contains more than thirty miles of solid masonry and crosses three valleys on bridges, of which the longest has sixty-seven arches, the middle one being 128 feet in height and 70 feet span. This work, called the Arches of Cempoala, is still the admiration of engineers.