Monte Alban
Oaxaca, Mexico
Monte Alban is the hilltop capital of the Zapotecs above Oaxaca City in southern Mexico, founded around 500 BC on an…
32 tickets & tours
Country
Best ancient sites in Mexico
10 ancient sites in Mexico, ranked by why it makes the list from the catalogue data. Each page tells you what to see, which ticket or tour to book and when to go.
| # | Site | Country | Why it makes the list |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monte Alban | Mexico | The Zapotec capital on a levelled ridge above Oaxaca, a vast Great Plaza of pyramids, a ball court and the carved Danzantes stones. |
| 2 | Calakmul | Mexico | A great Maya capital deep in the Campeche rainforest, where Structure 2 can still be climbed above an unbroken canopy full of monkeys. |
| 3 | El Tajin | Mexico | The Pyramid of the Niches, unlike any other building in Mexico, and some twenty ballcourts, with the voladores performing at the gate. |
| 4 | Yaxchilan | Mexico | A Classic Maya city reached only by boat along the Usumacinta, its temples known for carved lintels recording the reigns of its kings. |
| 5 | Bonampak | Mexico | Three painted rooms of the Temple of the Murals show a royal ceremony, a battle and its aftermath, the best-preserved Maya wall paintings known. |
| 6 | Mitla | Mexico | Zapotec palace walls covered in geometric fretwork of thousands of small cut stones, a style seen nowhere else in Mexico, with cross-shaped tombs below. |
| 7 | Tonina | Mexico | A terraced acropolis climbing seven levels above the plaza, with stucco friezes and sculpture in the round, and very few other visitors. |
| 8 | Kabah | Mexico | The Codz Poop palace facade, covered with hundreds of stone masks of the rain god Chaac, at the end of a causeway from Uxmal. |
| 9 | Cacaxtla | Mexico | Life-size warriors, a bird man and a jaguar man painted in vivid colour under a roof, mixing central Mexican and Maya styles. |
| 10 | Great Pyramid of Cholula | Mexico | The largest pyramid in the world by volume, now a grassy hill crowned by a church, with tunnels and excavated plazas below. |
Calakmul
Calakmul, Mexico
Calakmul is the great Maya capital of the Snake Kingdom, deep in the rainforest of southern Campeche, 35 km from the…
9 tickets & tours
El Tajin
Papantla, Mexico
El Tajin is the great city of the Classic Veracruz culture, near Papantla in the hills of northern Veracruz, which…
5 tickets & tours
Yaxchilan
Palenque, Mexico
Yaxchilan is a Classic Maya city in the rainforest of Chiapas, reached only by boat along the Usumacinta River on the…
9 tickets & tours
Bonampak
Palenque, Mexico
Bonampak is a small Classic Maya city in the Lacandon rainforest of Chiapas, famous for the painted rooms of its Temple…
13 tickets & tours
Mitla
Mitla, Mexico
Mitla is the Zapotec religious centre in the Tlacolula Valley, 44 km south-east of Oaxaca city, known for walls covered…
17 tickets & tours
Tonina
Ocosingo, Mexico
Tonina is a Maya city in the highlands of Chiapas, 13 km east of Ocosingo, whose acropolis climbs seven terraces to…
3 tickets & tours
Kabah
Santa Elena, Mexico
Kabah is the second-largest Maya city of the Puuc hills in Yucatan, Mexico, about 140 km south of Merida and joined to…
5 tickets & tours
Cacaxtla
Nativitas, Mexico
Cacaxtla is a hilltop palace city in the state of Tlaxcala, near Puebla in central Mexico, famous for murals painted…
2 tickets & tours
Great Pyramid of Cholula
Cholula, Mexico
Cholula, just west of Puebla, holds the Tlachihualtepetl, the largest pyramid in the world by volume at about 4.45…
23 tickets & tours