Mitla: Ruins & Rug Weavers

East of Oaxaca, the Pan American Highway (Hwy. 190) leads to Mitla and passes several important archaeological sites, markets, and craft villages. You can visit the famous El Tule tree, an enormous, ancient cypress; the church at Tlacochahuaya, a lovely example of a 17th-century village church; the ruins at Dainzú, Lambityeco, and Yagul; the weaver's village of Teotitlán del Valle; and the village of Tlacolula, with its famous Dominican chapel.

There are a lot of little stops on this route, and some are a bit off the highway, so I recommend hiring a taxi, renting a car, or signing up with a small tour rather than using local bus transportation. If you take a tour, ask which sites it includes. To get to the highway, go north from downtown to Calzada Niños Héroes and turn right. This feeds directly on to the highway. All the sites are listed in order, from west (Oaxaca) to east (Mitla).

Santa Maria del Tule's 2,000-Year-Old Tree

Santa María del Tule is a small town 8km (5 miles) outside Oaxaca. It's famous for the immense El Tule Tree, an ahuehuete (Montezuma cypress, akin to the bald cypress) standing in a churchyard just off the main road. Now over 2,000 years old, it looks every bit its age, the way large cypresses do. However, this one is the most impressive tree I've ever seen for the sheer width of its trunk and canopy. It is said to have the broadest trunk of any tree in the world. When the tree was younger, the entire region around Santa María del Tule was marshland; in fact, the word tule means "reed." Now, the water table has dropped, so to protect the tree, a private foundation waters and takes care of it. The 25¢ admission fee goes toward these efforts.

The Iglesia de San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya, 6km (4 miles) farther along, is the next stop. You'll see a sign pointing right; go less than another kilometer (about a half-mile) into town. Inside the church are an elaborately carved altar and a crucifix fashioned out of a ground paste made from the corn plant. The murals decorating the walls were the work of local artists of the 18th century and are a sweet mix of Spanish and Indian aesthetics. Make a point of seeing the beautifully painted baroque organ in the choir loft. The church is usually open daily from 10am to 2pm and 4 to 8pm.

Dainzu's Zapotec Ruins

Three kilometers (2 miles) farther, visible from the highway (26km/16 miles from Oaxaca), you'll see a sign pointing to the right. It's less than a kilometer (under a mile) to the ruins, which were first excavated in the 1960s. Dainzú is a pre-Classic site that dates from between 700 and 600 B.C. Increasingly sophisticated building continued until about A.D. 300. The site occupies the western face of a hill, presumably for defense. The main building is a platform structure whose walls were decorated with carvings resembling Monte Albán's Danzantes. These carvings are now in a protective shed; a caretaker will unlock it for interested parties. These figures show Olmec influence but differ from the Danzantes because they wear the trappings of the "ball game," which make them, in all likelihood, the earliest representations of the ball game in Mexico. And, in fact, a partially reconstructed ball court sits below the main structure. The site provides an outstanding view of the valley. Admission is $3 (£1.65).

Teotitlan del Valle's Beautiful Rugs

The next major turnoff you come to is 2km (1 1/2 miles) farther along, 3km (2 miles) from the highway. This is Teotitlán, famous for weaving, and now an obviously prosperous town, to judge by all the current development. This is where you'll want to go for rugs, and you'll find no shortage of weavers and stores. Most weavers sell out of their homes and give demonstrations. The prices are considerably lower than in Oaxaca.

The church in town is well worth a visit. The early friars used pre-Hispanic construction stones to build the church and then covered them with adobe. When the townspeople renovated the church, they rediscovered these stones with carved figures, and now proudly display them. You'll see them in odd places in the walls of the church and sacristy. Teotitlán also has a small community museum, opposite the artisans' market and adjacent to the church. The museum has an interesting exhibit on natural dye-making, using herbs, plants, and cochineal (a red dye derived from insects).

For a bite to eat, consider the Restaurant Tlamanalli, Av. Juárez 39 (tel. 951/524-4006), run by three Zapotec sisters who serve Oaxacan cuisine. Its reputation attracts lots of foreigners. It's on the right on the main street as you approach the main part of town, in a red brick building with black wrought-iron window covers. It's open Monday through Friday from 1 to 4pm. A bit farther on, there's another nice restaurant on the left where the main street intersects with the town center.

Lambityeco's Rain God

Getting back to the highway and continuing eastward, in 3km (2 miles) you'll see a turnoff on the right for the small archaeological site of Lambityeco. Of particular interest are the two beautifully executed and preserved stucco masks of the rain god Cocijo. At Lambityeco, a major product was salt, distilled from saline groundwater nearby. Admission is $3 (£1.65).

Tlacolula's Fine Market & Unique Chapel

Located about 30km (18 miles) from Oaxaca (1.5km/1 mile past Lambityeco), Tlacolula is in mezcal country, and along the road from here to Mitla, you'll see a couple of small distilleries and distillery outlets advertising their product. Feel free to stop by any one of them to taste their wares. Mezcal is distilled from a species of agave different from that of tequila. Most mezcal has a very strong smell and may or may not come with a worm in the bottle. Many of these small distilleries flavor their mezcal in much the same way that Russians flavor vodka.

Sunday is market day in Tlacolula, with rows of textiles fluttering in the breeze and aisle after aisle of pottery and baskets. If you don't go on market day, you have the advantage of not competing with crowds. The Capilla del Mártir of the parochial church is a stunning display of virtuosity in wrought iron. The doorway, choir screen, and pulpit, with their baroque convolutions, have no equals in Mexico's religious architecture. Also eye-catching are the realistic, almost life-size sculptures of the 12 apostles in their various manners of martyrdom. A few years ago, a secret passage was found in the church, leading to a room that contained valuable silver religious pieces. The silver was hidden during the Revolution of 1916, when there was a tide of anticlerical sentiment; the articles are now back in the church.

Yagul's Zapotec Fortress

Yagul, a fortress city on a hill overlooking the valley, is a couple of kilometers (about 1 1/2 miles) farther on down the highway. You'll see the turnoff to the left; it's less than a kilometer (about a half mile) off the road. The setting is spectacular, and because the ruins are not as fully reconstructed as those at Monte Albán, you're likely to have the place to yourself. It's a good place for a picnic lunch.

The city was divided into two sections: the fortress at the top of the hill and the palaces lower down. The center of the palace complex is the plaza, surrounded by four temples. In the center is a ceremonial platform, under which is the Triple Tomb. The door of the tomb is a large stone slab decorated on both sides with beautiful hieroglyphs. The tomb may be open for viewing; if there are two guards, one can leave the entrance to escort visitors.

Look for the beautifully restored, typically Zapotec ball court. North of the plaza is the palace structure built for the chiefs of the city. It's a maze of rooms and patios decorated with painted stucco and stone mosaics. Visible here and there are ceremonial mounds and tombs decorated in the same geometric patterns found in Mitla. The panoramic view of the valley from the fortress is worth the rather exhausting climb.

Admission is $4 (£2.20). Still cameras are free, but use of a video camera costs $5 (£2.75). The site is open daily from 8am to 5:30pm.

It's just a few kilometers farther southeast to Mitla. The turnoff comes at a very obvious fork in the road.

Mitla's Large Zapotec & Mixtec Site

Mitla is 4km (2 3/4 miles) from the highway; the turnoff terminates at the ruins by the church. If you've come here by bus, it's less than a kilometer (about half a mile) up the road from the dusty town square to the ruins; if you want to hire a cab, there are some in the square.

The Zapotec settled Mitla around 600 B.C., and it became a Mixtec bastion in the late 10th century. This city was still flourishing at the time of the Spanish Conquest, and many of the buildings were used through the 16th century.

Tour groups often bypass the town of Mitla (pop. 7,000), but it is worth a visit. The University of the Americas maintains the Museum of Zapotec Art (previously known as the Frissell collection) in town. It contains some outstanding Zapotec and Mixtec relics. Admission is $3 (£1.65). Be sure to look at the Leigh collection, which contains some real treasures. The museum is in a beautiful old hacienda.

You can easily see the most important buildings in an hour. Mixtec architecture is based on a quadrangle surrounded on three or four sides by patios and chambers, usually rectangular. The chambers are under a low roof, which is excellent for defense but makes the rooms dark and close. The stone buildings are inlaid with small cut stones to form geometric patterns.

There are five groups of buildings, divided by the Mitla River. The most important buildings are on the east side of the ravine. The Group of the Columns consists of two quadrangles, connected at the corners with palaces. The building to the north has a long chamber with six columns and many rooms decorated with geometric designs. The most common motif is the zigzag pattern, the same one seen repeatedly on Mitla blankets. Human and animal images are rare in Mixtec art. In fact, only one frieze has been found (in the Group of the Church, on the north patio). Here, you'll see a series of figures painted with their name glyphs.

Admission to the site is $4 (£2.20). Use of a video camera costs $5 (£2.75). Entrance to the museum is included in the price. It's open daily from 8am to 5pm.

Outside the ruins, vendors will hound you. The moment you step out of a car, every able-bodied woman and child for miles around will come charging over with shrill cries and a basket full of bargains -- heavily embroidered belts, small pieces of pottery, fake archaeological relics, and cheap earrings. Offer to pay half the price the vendors ask. There's a modern handicrafts market near the ruins, but prices are lower in town.