Yucuita

Yucuita is one of the oldest village sites in the Mixteca. The Mixtec founded it in the Formative (Preclassic) period as a small farming settlement that also worked and traded obsidian, and it was occupied continuously from the 14th century BCE to the 9th century CE. Its Mixtec name, Yúku'ita, translates roughly as "hill of flowers". It sits on a small plain in the Sierra Mixteca, in the Nochixtlán valley, about 86 km from Oaxaca city according to Wikipedia.

Esteban Avendaño made the first explorations in 1933, and INAH carried out the most recent excavations between 1976 and 1980. What is known is an elite residence, a platform built into the hillside with rooms around a central patio, and a ceremonial centre of which part of a platform and two long walls remain: one about 70 m long and 4 m high, and a second of about 52 m that meets it at a right angle. There is also a narrow stairway up the platform and a tunnel of roughly 60 m that served as drainage and as a passage. Traces of Rojo sobre Bayo pottery production have been found.

Come with realistic expectations. The sources we read agree that exploration was left unfinished, that the site is not set up for regular visitors and that the community has no tourist services. The neighbouring village, San Juan Yucuita, is the municipal seat and had 516 inhabitants in 2020; its town hall housed a small museum of finds from the site and a stela stands in the plaza, although one source says the museum is closed. The sensible step is to ask at the presidencia municipal before heading up to the ruins.