Villa de Zaachila

Villa de Zaachila is a market town in the Valley of Oaxaca, about 15 km south of Oaxaca city on Federal Highway 131, at roughly 1,520 m. It is the seat of its own municipality and is divided into ten barrios, each with its own fiesta. The town was the last capital of the Zapotec kingdom: when the Spanish arrived it was ruled by King Cosijoeza, and it was the home of his daughter Donají, the last Zapotec princess. The Aztecs, who called it Teozapotlan, had conquered it under Ahuitzotl in 1495.

According to INAH, people have lived here for about 3,500 years. A farming village existed on the rocky rise now called El Cerrito by 1500 BC; by the Late Classic (AD 500–850) Zaachila was a city-state of nearly 400 hectares, and after the fall of Monte Albán it remained a populous political centre and, with Mitla, a religious one. Marriages between Zapotec and Mixtec ruling families brought Mixtecs into the valley, and Mixtec influence is clear in the town's archaeology. In 1962 two tombs were excavated in the great mound behind the church, under armed guard after earlier attempts had been driven off by residents. Tomb 1 keeps stucco reliefs of owls and figures linked to the underworld; the rich offering found in Tomb 2 is now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. Tombs 3 and 4 were found in 1971.

The small archaeological zone sits on the hill directly behind the church of the Virgen de la Natividad, overlooking the plaza; most of the mound is unexcavated and houses cover much of the old city. Thursday is market day, when the streets around the square fill with produce, firewood, meat and food stalls, and barbacoa is a local speciality. On the last Monday of July the town holds its own Guelaguetza on El Cerrito, with dances from each barrio including the Danza de la Pluma and the stilt-walking zancudos; the patron saint's fiesta is on 8 September.