Mitla travel guide

(42 km southeast of Oaxaca, Turn left off Ruta 190, 5 km after Yagul and continue for 4 km, daily 0800-1800, US$2.60, video US$3.50, literature sold at entrance.)

At Mitla (meaning ‘place of the dead’) there are ruins of four great palaces among minor ones. Some of the archaeology, outside the fenced-in site, can be seen within the present- day town. Magnificent bas-reliefs, the sculptured designs in the Hall of Mosaics, the Hall of the Columns and, in the depths of a palace, La Columna de la Muerte (Column of Death), which people embrace and then measure what they can’t reach with their fingers to know how many years they have left to live (rather hard on long-armed people). After a period of closure the column can now be embraced again, but check at the entrance.