Oaxaca City map

Layout of Oaxaca City

Oaxaca de Juárez stands at 1,555 m where the three arms of the Valles Centrales meet — Etla to the north-west, Tlacolula to the east and Zimatlán–Ocotlán to the south. The Spanish settlement of 1529 was given city status as Antequera by Charles V on 25 April 1532, and its grid of about 500 blocks still holds. The municipality counted 270,955 people in 2020; the metropolitan area, which takes in Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Santa Lucía del Camino and a dozen more municipalities, comes to about 670,000. Buildings are low, partly by ordinance and partly because the valley is seismically active, and most are faced in green cantera, a chlorite-bearing volcanic stone quarried nearby.

The Zócalo and the adjoining Alameda de León form the centre, with the cathedral on the north side, begun in 1535 and finished in 1733 after repeated earthquake damage. From the Alameda the pedestrian Andador Macedonio Alcalá runs four blocks north to Santo Domingo de Guzmán, a Dominican church and monastery built between 1575 and 1731 whose interior is covered in gilded polychrome plasterwork. The monastery now holds the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca, whose central room displays the gold, jade and rock crystal recovered from Tomb 7 at Monte Albán in 1932 — the largest single find of worked gold from pre-conquest Mexico. Behind it lie the ethnobotanical garden and the Biblioteca Francisco de Burgoa.

Two blocks south of the Zócalo the covered Mercado Benito Juárez and Mercado 20 de Noviembre take up a block each, the second given over almost entirely to grilled meat and to chocolate and mole stalls. West of the centre, past the second-class bus station, the Central de Abastos is the wholesale market and the largest in southern Mexico; Saturday is its main day. UNESCO inscribed the historic centre in 1987 in a joint listing with Monte Albán.

East of the Río Jalatlaco, the barrio of Jalatlaco keeps cobbled streets and low painted houses around the church of San Matías; Xochimilco, north of the centre and reached by a surviving stretch of eighteenth-century aqueduct arches, is the old weavers' quarter. Colonia Reforma, north-east, is the twentieth-century residential district, and the first-class ADO bus terminal sits at its edge on the Calzada Niños Héroes de Chapultepec. The Cerro del Fortín rises immediately north-west with the Guelaguetza auditorium on its slope. Xoxocotlán International (OAX) is 8 km south of the centre on Highway 175, with flights to Mexico City, Tijuana, Houston, Dallas and the Oaxacan coast.

Distances from Oaxaca City

The valleys, Monte Albán and the mezcal road

Monte Albán occupies a levelled hilltop 400 m above the valley floor, 10 km west. Building began about 500 BC and the city held perhaps 17,000 people at its height around AD 500 before it was largely abandoned by AD 800; the Great Plaza, the ball court and the carved slabs called the Danzantes are the main structures visible. Ten kilometres in the other direction, at Santa María del Tule, the Árbol del Tule is a Montezuma cypress with a trunk circumference of about 42 m, the stoutest of any tree measured anywhere, and probably some 1,500 years old.

Highway 190 east runs the length of the Tlacolula arm and strings together the valley's specialist towns. Teotitlán del Valle weaves wool rugs on treadle looms and dyes them with cochineal and indigo. Tlacolula holds a Sunday market that predates the conquest. Mitla, 44 km out, was the Zapotec religious centre after Monte Albán declined and is covered in geometric stone fretwork assembled without mortar; it was added to the UNESCO list with the caves of Yagul in 2010, where 10,000-year-old domesticated squash seeds and bottle gourds were excavated. Beyond it, Santiago Matatlán calls itself the world capital of mezcal and sits at the centre of a denomination of origin that covers most of the state; Hierve el Agua, 70 km out, is a pair of calcified mineral cascades and spring-fed pools above a canyon.

South of the city, San Bartolo Coyotepec makes the burnished black pottery known as barro negro, and Ocotlán and Zaachila hold market days on Friday and Thursday. The new toll road to the Pacific has put Puerto Escondido and Huatulco within a half-day. The Oaxaca state map, the archaeological sites map and the Southern Mexico map cover the wider ground, and Chiapas lies beyond the isthmus to the east.

Questions about Oaxaca City

Where is Oaxaca City on the map of Mexico?

In the Valles Centrales of southern Mexico at 17.07° N, 96.72° W, 1,555 m above sea level, about 460 km south-east of Mexico City. It is the capital of the state of Oaxaca and the largest city in Southern Mexico.

How far is Monte Albán from Oaxaca City?

About 10 km west and 400 m higher, a 25-minute drive up the ridge road. The Zapotec city was the valley's capital from roughly 500 BC to AD 800 and was inscribed by UNESCO in 1987 together with the historic centre of Oaxaca.

How do you get from Oaxaca to the coast?

The Barranca Larga–Ventanilla highway, opened in February 2025, cut the drive to Puerto Escondido from six or seven hours on the old Highway 175 to roughly three. There are also short flights from Oaxaca airport (OAX) to Puerto Escondido and Huatulco.

When is the Guelaguetza?

On the two Mondays following 16 July each year, in the auditorium on the Cerro del Fortín above the city. Delegations from the eight regions of the state dance and hand out produce; the surrounding fortnight fills the centre.

Is Oaxaca City safe to visit?

The historic centre and the valley towns are among the most visited places in southern Mexico and the US State Department has kept the state of Oaxaca at a lower advisory level than most of its neighbours, while advising against travel to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region. Check the current State Department advisory before travelling.