Oaxaca · Mexico
Oaxaca CityMexico’s capital of food, mezcal and craft
Oaxaca
Highlights
- Monte AlbánThe mountaintop Zapotec capital, leveled by hand 2,500 years ago.
- Hierve el AguaMineral pools on a cliff edge beside petrified white waterfalls.
- Mezcal & the marketsPalenques in the valleys, mole and tlayudas in the 20 de Noviembre market.
- Artisan villagesTeotitlán’s wool rugs, barro negro pottery and alebrije carving towns.
About the destination
Oaxaca City is widely considered Mexico’s cultural and culinary capital — a UNESCO-listed grid of green-stone colonial buildings in a highland valley ringed by the Sierra Madre. The baroque church of Santo Domingo anchors a center of markets, galleries and courtyard restaurants, and the city explodes into color for the Guelaguetza in July and Día de Muertos in early November.
Just outside town, the mountaintop Zapotec capital of Monte Albán — one of Mesoamerica’s oldest cities — overlooks the valleys, which are dotted with artisan villages: Teotitlán del Valle for wool rugs, San Bartolo Coyotepec for black pottery, and the mezcal-producing lands around Santiago Matatlán. The mineral springs and petrified waterfalls of Hierve el Agua round out the classic valley circuit.