Mexico/Oaxaca: Cuillapan – Ex-monastery of Santiago Apostol

12km south from Oaxaca city lies a small town of Cuilapan de Guerrero, which was a large Zapotec city state before the Spanish arrived in the mid 1500s. To help convert the local population to Christianity, they built a massive monastery dedicated to Santiago Apostol on the hilltop on the heart of Cuilapan. Although the monastery was abandoned in 1663, a lot of the structures still remain – thick walls, colonnaded arcades and the main church. There is also the tomb of the last Zapotec princess buried here.