Yagul is a Zapotec archaeological site about 40 km east of Oaxaca, perched on a rocky ridge above the valley floor. It is smaller than Monte Albán and less visited than Mitla, which makes it more rewarding in some ways — on a weekday morning you may have it almost to yourself. The site has one of the largest ball courts in Mesoamerica, a palace complex with a labyrinthine layout of courtyards and tombs, and a hilltop fortress reached by a short but steep climb that rewards you with panoramic views across the full breadth of the valley.
Yagul flourished mainly after the decline of Monte Albán, from around AD 700 to the Aztec period. The cave above the site contains some of the earliest evidence of cultivated corn in the world — cobs found here were radio-carbon dated to around 8,000 years old, making this one of the candidate locations for the domestication of maize. Combine with Mitla and the Tule tree on the same road east of Oaxaca.