Tule Tree
The widest tree on Earth, standing in a quiet Mexican village churchyard.
The Árbol del Tule, or Tule Tree, is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) growing in the churchyard of Santa María del Tule, a small town about 9 kilometers east of Oaxaca City. It holds the record for the greatest trunk girth of any tree on the planet — roughly 58 meters in circumference at its base — and is estimated to be anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 years old, depending on which botanist you ask. To put it plainly: this tree was already ancient when the Aztec empire rose. It has its own gravitational presence. UNESCO recognized the site as a World Heritage candidate, and scientists have studied it extensively to understand how a single organism grows to this scale.
Visiting is straightforward and surprisingly moving. You walk into the small churchyard adjacent to the Templo de Santa María de la Asunción, and then the tree just stops you. The trunk is so massive and so deeply furrowed that locals and guides point out animal shapes hidden in the bark — a jaguar here, a crocodile there — and these aren't a stretch of the imagination. Vendors sell cold drinks and snacks outside the gates, and there's a small viewing platform that lets you get up close. The tree is very much alive: in full canopy, its shade covers an enormous area, and the scale only really hits you when you see other people standing next to it.
The site is easy to combine with a day trip along the Ruta del Mezcal or a visit to the archaeological site at Mitla, both heading in the same direction from Oaxaca City. Colectivos from the second-class bus terminal in Oaxaca drop you right in Santa María del Tule for almost nothing — a far better option than a private taxi if you're traveling lean. Admission to the churchyard requires a small fee, usually collected at the gate. Go on a weekday morning if you can: weekend afternoons bring school groups and tour buses, and the tiny plaza gets genuinely crowded.