The village of Zaachila lies 6km/4mi further south on the same road as Cuilapan. The last capital of the Zapotec kingdom was once situated here; its remains were only rediscovered in 1962. Up to the present time only the foundations of some of the structures on a hill behind the Church of the Virgen de Juquila have been excavated.
The large
central pyramid has hardly been examined. Tombs 1 and 2 were discovered within a patio inside a rectangular platform. Two jaguar heads decorate the faáade of Tomb 1; two owls with outspread wings modelled in stucco can be seen in the antechamber. In the burial chamber itself there are stucco figures of two rulers of the underworld with hearts hanging from their shoulders, each accompanied by a priest named "5 Flower" and "9 Flower" with a copal sack. On the back wall an old man is depicted wearing a headdress, with turtle-shell armour on his body and flints in his hands. Tomb 2 was considerably more modestly furnished, although valuable burial objects made of gold, jade and precious stones were found here. These are now kept in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. As was often the case around Oaxaca, Zapotec graves here were later also used by the Mixtecs as burial chambers. Monoliths, embellished with reliefs, found in the surrounding area are occasionally displayed on the village square.