Monte Albán

Monte Albán sits on an artificially levelled ridge about 400 metres above the floor of the Valley of Oaxaca, at the point where the valley's three arms meet. From its Main Plaza, some 300 by 150 metres, the view takes in all of them, and Oaxaca City lies about 9 km to the east. Founded around 500 BC in what had been an empty buffer zone between rival chiefdoms, it grew quickly into one of the first cities of Mesoamerica and for roughly a thousand years was the capital of the Zapotec state, dominating much of the Oaxacan highlands and dealing on equal terms with Teotihuacan. By around AD 900–1000 it had been largely abandoned.

The plaza was once plastered white. Great platforms with monumental stairways close it to the north and south, temples and elite residences stand on smaller mounds along the sides, and a spine of buildings runs down the centre. One of the city's two ballcourts lies at the plaza's edge. Most temples face east or west, following the sun. Two groups of carved stones give the site its fame. The so-called Danzantes, over 300 slabs from the city's earliest phase near Building L, show naked men in twisted poses; they were once thought to be dancers but are now read as slain or captured enemies. Building J, arrow-shaped and set at an angle to everything else, carries more than 40 "conquest slabs" naming places the city claimed to control, some with upside-down heads.

Around the core, several hundred terraces covered the slopes with houses, and elite dwellings were built around patios with painted tombs beneath them. Excavations led by Alfonso Caso from 1931 reconstructed much of what is visible today. In 1932 his team opened Tomb 7, reused by the Mixtecs, and found one of the richest burial offerings known in the Americas; much of it is now in the regional museum housed in the former convent of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca. A small museum on site keeps original carved stones, including some of the best-preserved Danzantes.

Getting there

The site is in the municipality of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, about 4 km from its centre and about 9 km west of Oaxaca City. Shuttle buses leave from the centre of Oaxaca near the cathedral several times a day, and the ride takes around half an hour. Oaxaca's Xoxocotlán International Airport (OAX) is about 7 km away.