Zapotec weaving and ancient ruins

Oaxaca is at the centre of many villages with centuries-long craft traditions, most notably weaving and pottery. We went to a family weaving cooperative to see the process of making the traditional rugs of the area. It involves carding and dying the wool with natural dyes and then spinning by hand. It’s a lengthy process and it results in an incredible range of gorgeous colours.

The wool is then woven on looms of different sizes to create scarves, bags, shawls,  and rugs of different sizes. This is the largest loom, which creates rugs as wide as eight feet.

This is Laine with her daughter Calla showing the rug they chose.

On the same trip we stopped at Mitla to see the Zapotec ruins of a ceremonial centre. This place was built in the 12th C and has decorated walls made from patterns of carved stones.


The archeological finds in this area go back to thousands of years. We passed one site called Yagul, which was occupied 10,000 tears ago. We also visited Monte Alban, a huge city that dates from 800 BC.  Monte Alban’s Tomb 7 was discovered in the 1930s and yielded gold, crystal and turquoise artifacts plus pearls and carvings and jewelry. It’s on display in the museum of Oaxaca culture housed in an ex-convent with beautiful vistas of the area.

The people of this area are proud of their cultural heritage and traditional crafts are still made today. We went to the Sunday tiangui, or traditional market at the village of Tlacolula where I bought a coral world d carving of an imaginary animal. The area is famous for these carvings, known as Alebrijes.  The market sold everything you could ever want, from hammocks to hand lotion. And it seems that some villagers here are descended from people who lived in Yagul thousands of years ago.


We only scratched the surface of the rich history of this fascinating area. We are hoping to come back again and stay longer.