The Yautepec palace is the only Aztec royal palace to be extensively excavated by archaeologists. It is a large mound (nearly 7,000 square meters, or 1.3 acres) at the edge of modern Yautepec, only part of which has been uncovered. The structure was a platform several meters high entered by a single stairway on the west side. On top of the platform are a series of rooms, courtyards, and passageways built of stone with lime plaster coverings. The walls were originally covered with elaborate polychrome murals, only fragments of which have survived. Several blocks from the pyramid is an Aztec-period elite residential structure on the grounds of the public secondary school. The outer walls have been destroyed, but much of the interior was intact when excavated in 1993. Other Tlahuica houses and deposits excavated in 1993 were reburied and are not open for viewing today.
