Photo sessions at Mexico's archaeological sites: what INAH allows

Taking photos at a Mexican archaeological zone is free for personal use and regulated for professional work: the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) lets any visitor with a ticket photograph on a phone or a non-professional camera, and requires its permit INAH-01-001 for every shoot that uses professional or special equipment. That single line decides how a couple, engagement or holiday session near a pyramid has to be planned, so it is worth understanding before you book anything.

Personal photos and professional sessions are different things

The INAH-01-001 page states that no permit is needed to photograph or film an open INAH site for personal purposes with non-professional devices, as long as you pay the entry fee and follow the restrictions of that site.

An INAH bulletin of 17 June 2024 confirms that phones, tablets and non-professional cameras are not banned at any INAH site, and adds that INAH charges an extra MXN 60 when those devices are used for commercial purposes.

A hired photographer with a professional camera is the other case. INAH-01-001 covers anyone photographing or filming "con equipo especial y/o profesional" at an INAH zone, monument or museum, whether the place is open to the public or not. INAH does not publish a definition of professional equipment, so whether a mirrorless body, a gimbal or a reflector counts is INAH's call, not ours and not the gate attendant's.

How permit INAH-01-001 works

The application goes to the Coordinación Nacional de Asuntos Jurídicos (CNAJ), INAH's legal office, through the Ventanilla Única of the INAH centre in the state or through the online trámites platform. The steps on the INAH-01-001 page are these:

1. Apply at least 10 business days before the shoot.
2. Attach a script, storyboard or dummy of what will be photographed.
3. Write a letter to the CNAJ with a synopsis, the logistics, the number of participants, whether there are actors or models, and where the images will be published.
4. Expect an answer within 5 business days for sites in the Mexico City metropolitan area, 6 business days elsewhere, and 45 business days for sites closed to the public.
5. Pay when the permit is issued; the authorisation lasts as long as the project.

Models and a commercial purpose are part of what INAH assesses, which is why a couple posing for a hired photographer sits inside this process and a couple taking selfies does not.

What the permit costs in 2026

The fees come from Article 288-D of the Ley Federal de Derechos, in the amounts updated for 2026, and INAH's permit page shows the same figures rounded to the peso.

The day fee is paid in addition to every entry ticket, not instead of it. The amounts are updated each January by the Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal, so a 2027 session should be priced against the 2027 figures. INAH's 2024 bulletin does not say how the MXN 60 device charge relates to the day fee, so ask INAH which one applies to your plan.

Entry tickets at five zones

Each figure below is the foreign-visitor price shown on the zone's own INAH page in October 2026; Mexican nationals and foreign residents pay less, and enter free on Sundays.

At Chichén Itzá and Uxmal the state fee is bought at the site, on top of the INAH ticket.

Drones, tripods and big lenses

The drone standard, NOM-107-SCT3-2019, says nothing about archaeological zones; the restriction comes from INAH. INAH's autumn 2025 equinox bulletin for Chichén Itzá required prior CNAJ authorisation for professional photo and video equipment, tripods and drones. The spring 2026 equinox bulletin went further and banned drone flights and ceremonies of any kind outright, and listed tripods and camera lenses among the items not admitted.

Those bulletins describe specific events, but they show the direction: inside a zone, plan for no drone unless INAH has authorised it in writing. Aerial footage of the landscape around a site is a separate question, flown outside the zone by a Mexican-registered pilot under NOM-107 rules, which are covered on our drone photo and video page.

Ceremonies, vows and proposals

Weddings and ceremonies are not part of a normal visit to an INAH zone. INAH bulletins describe ceremonies as prohibited or subject to CNAJ permission, and no published route authorises a private wedding inside a zone, so a wedding photographed with a ruin in the background is usually held at a nearby private venue.

A proposal is a gesture rather than a ceremony, but the moment still involves a hired photographer, which puts it back in the professional-equipment question. The proposal plans we build near archaeological sites use a private garden, hacienda or viewpoint outside the fence instead.

Light, hours and time zones

All five zones in the table open at 8:00, so sunrise light falls before the gates open and the golden hour before sunset falls after they close. Portraits in warm, low light near a site are therefore planned outside the zone, and the first hour after opening is the softest light available inside it.

The Ley de los Husos Horarios puts Quintana Roo, where Tulum is, one hour ahead of Yucatán, where Chichén Itzá and Uxmal are. A day trip from Cancún or Tulum to Chichén Itzá that ignores the clock change reaches the 16:00 last entry an hour earlier than the phone in your pocket expected.

How we plan a session around ruins

Most travellers want two things: a visit to the zone and portraits that feel like it. We keep them apart. You visit the zone as a tourist, with your own phone, and the booked session takes place outside the fence, in the town, a hacienda, a cenote or the coast nearby. Where a client does want images inside a zone, we start the INAH-01-001 file at least 10 business days ahead and budget the day fee openly.

Starting points by destination: Tulum for the cliff-top ruins and the coast, Mérida for Chichén Itzá and Uxmal day trips, Oaxaca for Monte Albán, and Mexico City for Teotihuacan. A couple session starts at $150, an engagement session at $180 and a vacation session at $130, each 30 minutes long. Destination pages go further: couple photos in Tulum and an engagement session in Oaxaca.

Tell us the zone, the date and what you hope to photograph, and we will say plainly whether it needs a permit before you pay anything: send your enquiry.