Yagul

Tickets and tours: all the options

Yagul is managed by INAH, Mexico's national heritage institute, and entry is a small ticket bought at the booth below the site. There is no timed entry, combined ticket or audio guide, and guides are rarely waiting at the gate, so the brief panels in Spanish and English are all the help you get without a tour. Mexican residents enter free on Sundays.

Nothing is sold online for Yagul alone; it appears as one stop on day tours from Oaxaca. The common format is a minibus day along the Tlacolula valley with a guide, covering the Tule tree, a weaving village such as Teotitlan del Valle, a mezcal distillery, Mitla or Hierve el Agua, with an hour or so at Yagul. More specialised tours visit three smaller Zapotec sites, Dainzu, Lambityeco and Yagul, in a single day. Private tours with a driver suit those who want to climb to the fortress without rushing, and multi-day trips around the Day of the Dead include it.

Check whether entry fees and lunch are included, since many operators charge them separately. For most visitors a valley day tour is the easiest plan; with a hire car or a taxi, visiting independently in the early morning is better.

A short history

People lived on and around the hill from about 500 to 100 BC, and residential and ceremonial buildings went up around AD 500 to 700. After Monte Alban declined around AD 800, the valley's population gathered in smaller centres such as Lambityeco, Mitla and Yagul. Most of what you see dates from 1250 to 1521, when Yagul was the capital of a Postclassic city-state with more than 6,000 people. After the Spanish conquest its inhabitants were moved to Tlacolula. Ignacio Bernal and John Paddock excavated it in the 1950s and 1960s. It became a natural monument in 1998, and the caves of Yagul and Mitla were added to the UNESCO list in 2010.

Getting there

Yagul lies just off Highway 190, the road from Oaxaca to Mitla, about 36 km from the city. By car or taxi, the drive takes about 45 minutes; turn north at the signposted junction past Tlacolula and follow the side road to the car park below the site. Second-class buses and shared taxis heading for Tlacolula and Mitla leave Oaxaca frequently; ask to get off at the Yagul turn-off, then walk about 1.5 km uphill on the quiet road, roughly 25 minutes. Oaxaca airport is about 30 minutes south of the city. Many visitors hire a taxi for a half day, which makes it easy to add Mitla or the Tlacolula market.

Rules and what to bring

Do not climb on walls or enter roped-off tombs, and keep to the marked paths, especially near the cliff edges of the fortress. Drones need an INAH permit. The site is fully exposed, so bring a hat, sunscreen and plenty of water, and wear shoes with grip for the loose steps. Toilets are at the entrance, but there is no food on site; Tlacolula, a few minutes away, has plenty of places to eat.

When to go

Yagul is quiet most of the day, and many hours you will share it with only a few others. Day tours tend to arrive in late morning, when the sun is already strong on the bare rock, so come at opening for cooler air and soft light, or after 3 pm, when the shadows fall across the valley and the fortress climb is more comfortable.

October to March is the dry season, with clear skies and mild days, although mornings can be cool in December and January. April and May are the hottest months, and the rainy season from June to September brings afternoon storms that make the steps slippery. The Day of the Dead at the end of October and the Guelaguetza festival in July fill Oaxaca with visitors. Sunday is market day in Tlacolula, a good pairing. Allow one and a half to two hours, including the fortress.