Snapshot: Visit the Majestic Ruins of Monte Alban

The flattened mountain top lends a panoramic view of the plunging valleys of Oaxaca with the city in the distance. Surrounding it are scattered ruins of pyramids, plazas, temples and other structures. Monte Alban, or the White Mountain, is the most majestic ancient ruins in Oaxaca.

Back in 500 B.C., Monte Alban was an ancient capital of the Zapotec people. Its builders levelled the mountain top and developed terraces and other works. The city’s construction took centuries to build, but its people abandoned it abruptly, and mysteriously. The Mixtec people swooped in and used Monte Alban as a burial site for their privileged.

Today, Monte Alban is an archaeological site with cultural and historical significance. There are many areas to visit. At the North Platform, you find several structures as well as temples, while the South Platform houses a large pyramid with an open plaza. Both these platforms are accessible via a gigantic flight of stairs.

There is also a ballcourt, used for sports back in the day, although the origins of which game was played is unknown. Building J, an arrow-like shaped building, is an astronomical observatory. Within the building walls are large carved slabs with names of places and are thought to be conquest slabs.

There are scatterings of carved stone monuments throughout the open plaza sporting fascinating or disturbing (depending on your penchant for torture) images of naked men in twisted and contorted positions. A must visit is Tomb 7, where Mexican archaeologists unearthed a tomb filled with treasures in the 1930s.