Mitla is one the best preserved pre-Hispanic archeological sites in Mexico that I have been to. Its name comes from the language spoken by the Aztecs (Nahuatl) and it means “Place of the Dead”. The reason for the name is due to the tombs constructed in this place.
The earliest structures where built by the Zapotec people, a Mesoamerican tribe that ruled most of the current land body of the modern state of Oaxaca. The Zapotec believed that the common people emerged from the trees or the animals to become humans; however they believed that their rulers, on the other hand, descended from a race of people that lived in the clouds and that upon death, they would return to heaven. 
Thus the Zapotec built elaborate tombs at this site, to put to rest their heavenly rulers. The structures themselves were built with architectural proportions and shapes that captured their beliefs about their place in the cosmos. For example one of the tombs, is built in the shape of a cross, with the proportions of the cross resembling the proportions of a human being. Where the center of the cross is the center of the human being and also the center of the universe, since the human being and the universe were linked. At this spot the deceased body of the heavenly ruler is placed to begin his journey back to the Cosmos. . Now you can view this little known archeological wonder in Mexico by clicking here.
