Mitla and the Tlacolula Valley
Zona ArqueolóGica (INAH) / Valle De Tlacolula · Mitla, Oaxaca
Mitla means place of the dead, and the Zapotec called it Lyobaa, the burial place. What makes it unlike any other ruin in Mexico is the surface: the palace walls are covered in geometric mosaic fretwork built from thousands of individually cut stones fitted together without mortar, in fourteen different patterns, precise enough that a blade will not go between them. The Spanish built a church directly on top of one palace group out of its own stone. Mitla is only the end of a fifty-kilometre valley east of Oaxaca: El Tule, a tree with the stoutest trunk on earth, Teotitlan del Valle, a Zapotec weaving village, the Sunday market at Tlacolula, and Santiago Matatlan, which calls itself the mezcal capital of the world. Colectivos run the highway all day, so a car is optional. Go to Mitla early before the Oaxaca tour buses, buy rugs from the weavers and mezcal from small palenques, and do the valley on a Sunday if you can.
Zona Arqueológica de Mitla, San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Mitla, Oaxaca, 70430, Mexico
The Mitla archaeological zone keeps INAH daytime hours and closes mid-afternoon; INAH Sunday free admission applies to Mexican nationals and residents only. ⚠ THE UNESCO INSCRIPTION IN THIS AREA (2010) IS THE PREHISTORIC CAVES OF YAGUL AND MITLA, listed for evidence of plant domestication around ten thousand years old - ⚠ IT IS NOT AN INSCRIPTION OF THE MITLA RUINS THEMSELVES, and the caves are not a casual visit. ⚠ THE VALLEY IS A STRING OF STOPS ALONG 50 KM OF HIGHWAY 190 - El Tule, Teotitlán del Valle, Tlacolula, Yagul, Santiago Matatlán - and colectivos run it all day, so a car is optional. ⚠ TLACOLULA'S MARKET IS ON SUNDAY and is the best day to do the valley. ⚠ THE TOMBS AT MITLA ARE ENTERED BY STEEP NARROW STEPS INTO LOW DARK CHAMBERS. ⚠ HIERVE EL AGUA IS IN THIS VALLEY AND ITS ACCESS HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BY COMMUNITY DISPUTE BEFORE - confirm on the day before driving out. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.
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