https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rbol_del_Tule#/media/File:ArbordeTuleOaxaca_MX.jpg
El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately 9 km (6 mi) east of the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has the stoutest tree trunk in the world.
n 2005, its trunk had a circumference of 42.0 m (137.8 ft), equating to a diameter of 14.05 m (46.1 ft),[2] an increase from a measurement of 11.42 m (37.5 ft) m in 1982.[3] However, the trunk is heavily buttressed, giving a higher diameter reading than the true cross-sectional of the trunk represents; when this is taken into account, the diameter of the 'smoothed out' trunk is 9.38 m (30.8 ft).[2] This is slightly wider than the next most stout tree known, a giant sequoia with a 8.90 m (29.2 ft) diameter.[4] The height is difficult to measure due to the very broad crown; the 2005 measurement, made by laser, is 35.4 m (116 ft),[2] shorter than previous measurements of 41–43 m (135–141 ft).[3]
I saw the Tule tree in 1957. It looked just as big then. I went to Oaxaca to see the restored ruins of the Zapotec and Mixtec cities of Monte Alban and Mitla. Monte Alban was on the top of a hill overlooking Oaxaca. It had several pyramids of the stepped verticle style seen in other restored Mexican sites. Mitla was very different. It has very horizontal construction with rectangular shapes and decoration.