Yucundaa

Yucundaa, the old town of Teposcolula, occupied a hilltop in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. It was the seat of a Mixtec kingdom, with a palace complex, public spaces and residential areas spread across the slopes. Its rulers governed a substantial territory in the valleys around the hill, and the city was a prominent political centre on the eve of the Spanish conquest.

In the early colonial period Yucundaa underwent profound change. Spanish rule and Christian conversion altered the buildings and institutions of the Indigenous town. The settlement was eventually moved to the valley below, where the colonial town of Teposcolula developed. The abandoned hilltop preserves evidence of the transition from an independent Mixtec capital to a community under Spanish rule.