Yagul

On my second day in Oaxaca, I went to Yagul with my new friends from Portland Kevin and Olivia. It was kinda funny because on our tour every one of the 15 people lived in either Oregon Washington or California. Yagul was very interesting it was my first visit to a ruins site!
From what I understand Yagul was settled in the 500 CE by the Zapotec's, an indigenous community that still lives in Oaxaca.

Yagul is thought to have been a protective fortress because of the labyrinth that leads up to the palace. What remains is very short walls but originally there were very tall adobe walls atop the stone.

Yagul also has the second largest ball court in Mesoamerica. The Zapotec's played a game on this court that is similar to handball. Some people think it was just a game but other scholars believe that the winner of the game was sacrificed. Sacrifice was considered a great honor by the Zapotec's, if a person died in battle, childbirth or sport they they believed they would go to the upper level of the afterlife. Zapotec's didn't believe in hell but they did believe in an upper and lower afterlife both of which were good and better then this life. The upper level was for reserved for honorable battle deaths and the lower was for everyone else.

Near the ball court is a triple tomb with an animal figure thought to be a frog or a jaguar (looks like a frog to me). An opening bleow the alter leads to the Triple Tomb. Inside the tomb are 2 craving of human heads. When it was first found there were many artifacts and pieces of jewelry but in the 1600s the Spanish took most of it back to Spain and melted it.