Yagul

Altitude: 1650 m (5413 ft)

How to get there

By bus from Oaxaca (town) in the direction of Mitla, alighting at the turning for Yagul and then proceeding on foot for 2km/1.3mi; by car from Oaxaca on the MEX 190 in the direction of Tehuantepec, after 34km/21mi turning off left to the excavation site 2km/1.3mi away.

Yagul, once an important secular and religious centre of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs, lies on the slope of a hill in the north-east of Tlacolula in the middle of countryside covered with high-growing cacti. The temples and palaces, which are built on three levels, are dominated by a fortress situated on the summit, from which there is a view across the valley of Oaxaca. History

Yagul (Zapotec: "old village") was already settled in the pre-Classic period in the phases of Monte Albán I and II (600 bc-ad 100). More than 30 graves, often arranged in pairs, have been discovered. This building activity reached its peak between ad 800 and 1200 (phase of Monte Albán IV), when, with the surrender of Monte Albán, the fall of the Zapotec empire began. At the same time the influence of the Mixtecs increased, and it is thought that Mitla, some 15km/9.3mi away, underwent a similar development. In spite of this it is still not really known for certain who actually built the pre-Columbian sites around Yagul. At the end of the 1950s the site was rediscovered and excavated and restored by the University of the Americas and the Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia under the direction of Ignacio Bernal. Part of the site has still not been excavated.