Biggest Tree in the World, Mitla and the Zapotecs

We decided to go on a little sight-seeing trip around Oaxaca with a Polish girl and a Mexican guy. We went to the biggest tree in the world - Arbol del Tule. It's massive: 42m high, 58m circumference and weighs over 630 tons! It's a cedar Taxodium mucronatum but looks like a massive weeping willow. It's full of birds and looks really healthy. The church next to it is dwarfed by this monster of a tree, very impressive. Maybe I'm biased, but our Baobab in South Africa might be a wee bit smaller, but has more character. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful specimen and it's awesome to see such a massive natural structure remain so healthy.

This picture doesn't do this massive tree justice. Look at the Church and the car as a reference - it's huge!

Biggest tree in the World!

We took a disgustingly expensive taxi to Mitla - the Mexican guy we were with wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and didn't make a deal with the taxi driver before we got in - first rule before getting in any taxi is determine the price. So we arrived in Mitla, an archaeological place to the east of Oaxaca. The indigenous people who lived here were the Zapotec people, who settled here around 0-200 AD. The people moved here and built beautiful temples and structures. This place is known in the indigenous language Lyobaa, meaning 'resting place', due to the tombs and graves built into large structures.

My first impression of this place was, ja, looks nice. Not that impressive. But it is beautiful. It was scorching hot and the walk up the hill in this heat made us lethargic. The roads are cute, with colourful ponchos and souvenirs in the streets. We are in the middle of a semi-desert and there's little shade to protect us from the sun. We did eat an ice-cream tuna, which is a Mexican fruit from a cactus, delicious!

The Tuna (Opuntia ficus-indica) plant....nom nom nom

The Zapotecan trade-mark were the mosaic patterns on the structures called fretwork friezes. They were all carved out of rocks and a really beautiful. The themes really suite the area we are in - the heat and the semi-desert suite the structured angular patterns. The scenery is something you would expect, dark blue skies with hot sand and many different cacti around the structures. The Spanish decided the break the Zapotec structures and build a big Catholic church from the rubble. It's completely out of place and although the building itself isn't an eye-sore, the location is.

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The geometric shapes that decorate the interior of the chambers in the temples.

We walked around and entered one of the tombs. It's about 2m underground and built in a cross shape. The cadavers were placed in the main section with their offerings, and moved to the side when the next cadaver needs burial. Another interesting site was the main building, which resembled Greek architecture somehow. The patterns used to be painted bright red, and would have been really impressive.

The main building is one of the best examples of prehispanic architecture in Mesoamerica. Although the Spanish almost completely destroyed and dismantled all the buildings to make space for their church this structure was quite well preserved. The patterns are really interesting. Little is known about this culture, but they took a severe beating when the Spanish came conquering Mesoamerica. It was interesting and after a walk around we had a few drinks and missioned back to the climbing gym.