Isthmus of Tehuantepec

The southern half of the 200km-wide Isthmus of Tehuantepec (teh-wahn-teh-pek), Mexico’s narrow waist, forms the flat, hot, humid eastern end of Oaxaca state. Indigenous Zapotec culture is strong here, with its own regional twists. In 1496 the isthmus Zapotecs repulsed the Aztecs from the fortress of Guiengola, near Tehuantepec, and the isthmus never became part of the Aztec empire. An independent spirit pervades the region to this day.