Mexican Zapotec “Fortress” Revealed by LiDAR as a Large City
A new study of a Zapotec site in Mexico may have finally revealed its purpose. A team using LiDAR to analyze the complex have revealed a large post-classical city.
The site of Guiengola is well known to Mexican archaeologists. Built by the Zapotec, an indigenous pre-Columbian culture who lived in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico since 600 BC, there has always been something special about the site.
Guiengola was, unusually, never occupied and used by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. This means it offers an extremely well preserved example of a Zapotec site which has not been rebuilt in the Spanish style, albeit one built outside of their heartlands.
But there is something unusual about Guiengola too. Much of the site was (and is) hidden beneath a dense forest canopy, with the only immediately obvious feature being a giant structure at the center of the complex.
Some call this a “fortress,” others a “palace.” Colonial-era documents are dismissive of Guiengola, deciding that little mattered beyond this central structure and that the high population density here could be explained by a garrison housed there, part of the Zapotec’s push into foreign territory around the 13th century.
But it has always been clear that this was not the full story of the site. Finds started to come out of the thick jungle, family tombs and ceremonial plazas flanked by temples.
Such finds were only part of the picture, but with this study published in November 2024 by Cambridge University Press the use of airborne LiDAR has revealed the full extent of Guiengola for the first time. Stripping away the vegetation using laser imaging reveals an entire city at the site.
Walled, fortified and served by an internal road network, the city covers some 360 hectares. There is also evidence of a hierarchy within the planning of the city, with buildings of differing forms and functions being built and residential areas being separated into neighborhoods built around families.
There were different neighborhoods for ordinary and elite members of the population. Close analysis of the buildings, some 1,173 structures in all, suggests they are divided into monumental, military and residential.
The monumental structures included those for ceremonial purposes: plazas, temples and ballcourts all hidden beneath the thick vegetation. The military structures are primarily associated with defense of the walls, which also run within the city, controlling access to elite areas.
An intensive site survey of 90 of the buildings at Guiengola has produced some 2,292 artifacts which have allowed the research team to accurately date the city. We now know the Zapotec alone built it, from scratch, in the 13th century.
The city seems to have had a public “epicenter” covering some 22 hectares, filled with public buildings and plazas. Some of the elite population lived here but it seems that the focus of the town was a space where the entire population could gather together. A series of interconnected structures here may also have been the seat of power and residence of whoever was in charge.
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The palace itself is revealed as vast and complex, with multiple auxiliary buildings and terraces surrounding the central residences, all within high defensive walls. Multiple other, previously unknown large structures have also been found across the site, their purpose at this moment uncertain.
It is clear that there is far more here than a mere fortress garrison. And while some of the key buildings have been excavated, an entire lost city awaits discovery under the rainforest canopy.
Header Image: The “epicenter” of Zapotec Guiengola, with the surrounding area being revealed by LiDAR as a vast walled city. Source: Cambridge University Press.
