Touring Monte Alban--Monte Alban factsheet

Monte Alban, a UNESCO World Heritage site, contains the partially excavated and reconstructed ruins of the religious-administrative center of the ancient Zapotec dominion. The ruins rest on an artificially flattened mountaintop about 6 miles west of Oaxaca City, overlooking the three arms of the region's Central Valley. 

One of Monte Alban's monumental structures

 

The site is of great archaeological and cultural interest; it was the first urban center in Mesoamerica—the geographic-cultural area extending from central Mexico to northern Costa Rica--and was the center of the prehispanic Zapotec civilization for almost 1300 years. The Zapotecs developed one of the earliest forms of writing in the Americas, as well as a sophisticated counting system and a complex, astronomically-based calendar. Many of the people you'll see in the city of Oaxaca and nearby towns are the descendants of the builders and citizens of Monte Alban.

 

  

Visitors please note: The site is 6,400 feet above sea level, and just 17 ͦ north of the equator, so the sun can be very strong. Please use sunscreen and bring water and a hat. You can buy tickets and enter and explore the site on your own, or you can hire one of the certified guides at the site. They may or may not give you the most up-to-date archaeological information, but you will almost certainly learn some interesting things from them. The visitors' center provides restrooms, a cafe, and a small museum. The museum at the visitors' center is worthwhile, so save some time for it either before or after you tour the site itself. 

We recommend walking clockwise around the Main Plaza. Follow the path from the visitors' center, enter the Main Plaza near its northeast corner, and explore the east, south, west and north sides in that order. If you're motivated, you can climb the South Platform to get a stunning view of the site, or wander around the extensive North Platform, which also features great views. 

While you're touring the site, you may be approached by vendors selling reproductions of ceremonial figures discovered at the site. There's nothing wrong with buying some of these if you're so moved. Feel free to bargain, but don't believe it if you're told that these are original pre-hispanic pieces unearthed by the vendors.

Timeline: Monte Alban's earliest structures date from around 500 BC. It enjoyed its political peak from approximately 500 to 750 AD. Its influence began to decline around 750 AD, and it was largely abandoned by 800 AD. In the absence of Monte Alban's dominating influence, a number of smaller city-states jockeyed for power. None of them occupied the site, but they appear to have viewed it as sacred, and used it as for elite burials. Some of the treasures from that period can be found in Room 3 of the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures, next to Santo Domingo church in Oaxaca -- also well worth a visit.

To put this era in context, the Olmec civilization, thought to be the earliest in Mesoamerica, thrived between about 1500 BC and 400 BC. The Maya civilization flourished between approximately 250 AD and 900 AD, while the Aztec Empire rose and fell much later; founded in 1428 AD and conquered by the Spanish less than a century later, in 1521. As another reference point, the period during which Monte Alban dominated the region was roughly contemporary with ancient Rome (~ 500 BC to ~500 AD).

Although the site of Monte Alban was known to the Spanish conquistadores and described by visitors and a few archaeologists through the years, the first serious excavations and reconstructions did not take place until 1931, under the direction of Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Caso. You'll see a high-relief sculpture of Caso, looking a bit like the frozen Han Solo in Star Wars, as you enter the site.

Estimated Population: Although Oaxaca's central valleys have been occupied since at least 8000 BC, Monte Alban itself does not seem to have been inhabited prior to its founding. The city and its surroundings are estimated to have had a population of around 5000 by 300 BC, 17,000 by 100 BC, and 25,000 by 700 AD. Its rulers presided over some 700 square miles of Oaxaca's central valleys and highlands, with an estimated population of around 130,000. Archaeologists are continuing to study sites near Monte Alban and throughout the region, detailing patterns of population, farming, trade, political ties, conquests, etc. Only the religious and political elite lived atop Monte Alban; lower-ranking people lived on the slopes of the mountain and in the surrounding valleys.

WHAT YOU'LL SEE: 

The Main Plaza, roughly 330 by 200 yards, occupies the artificially leveled mountaintop. It's surrounded by pyramid-shaped platforms that supported temples and other structures. The platforms were built in successive layers over many hundreds of years. When the site was at its peak, the plaza would have been paved, served by an efficient drainage system, and the pyramids covered with stucco and painted. It was certainly used for religious ceremonies, and may also have served as a marketplace.

View of Monte Alban's Main Plaza from the North Platform

The Ball Court is a sunken, I-shaped structure where ritual ball games were held. There's a second, smaller ball court a few hundred yards east of the visitors' center. Similar games took place throughout Mesoamerica for over 3000 years, and are thought to have been sacred rather than secular, reflecting the “cosmovision” of these cultures--their beliefs about their relationships with the earth, sky, underworld and gods. The game was played with a heavy rubber ball that was kept moving by bouncing it off parts of the body other than the feet or hands, especially the hips. Games may well have been associated with human sacrifices, which were seen as vital to nurturing the gods and ensuring order.

The Palace, the second building south of Building P (discussed below), is a dwelling of the Zapotec nobility. A massive staircase leads to a private court surrounded by rooms, plus a shrine in the center.

Building J stands out because it is arrow-shaped and oriented roughly 45 degrees from the other structures. It's one of just two such buildings in all of ancient Mesoamerica, the other located at Caballito Blanco, about 30 miles to the east. Building J occupies the center of the south end of the main plaza. You can get the best view and sense of its shape if you climb (carefully!) the South Platform. 

 Monte Alban's arrowhead-shaped Building J

 

Building J was started around 250 BC and, like many buildings throughout ancient Mesoamerica, had levels added on, like successive layers of an onion. We know that it commemorated victories over surrounding cities, recorded on “conquest slabs” visible along the building's walls (and in the museum). Each slab shows a pyramid—the symbol for a city—along with identifying information, a date, and in some cases an inverted head, perhaps indicating a military victory rather than a political assimilation.

Building J is also thought to have served as an astronomical observatory, probably supporting the complex Monte Alban calendar based on a 260 day ceremonial cycle (20 named days times 13 numbered days), a 365 day solar cycle, and a 584 day Venus cycle. The ceremonial and solar cycles coincide every 52 years, and all three cycles coincide every 104 years. There's some rather complicated astronomical evidence that has led distinguished local archaeologist Marcus Winter and colleagues to argue that this calendar was first developed at Monte Alban and eventually spread throughout ancient Mesoamerica. 

Throughout Mesoamerica, all religious, political and agricultural events were organized around the calendar. In addition, astronomical and calendrical relationships were incorporated into the architecture. For example, the ratio of the lengths of Monte Alban's two ballcourts is 365:260, while the ratio of the widths of the North Platform's main staircases are 365:584.

Building J exhibits some remarkable archeoastronomical features. The arrowhead points toward the point on the horizon where the sun sets on the two days of the year when it passes directly overhead at noon--called the zenith passage--May 8 and August 5. In addition, a sight-line from the arrowhead through a doorway at the opposite side of the building points directly to a vertical shaft in the center of Building P, on the east side of the plaza. That shaft allows a flash of sunlight to illuminate an otherwise dark interior room at noon on those two days, where presumably an important ritual took place. An ancient astronomer-priest awaiting the May zenith passage would have been tipped off by the first appearance of the bright star Capella over Building P just before dawn on the crucial day. To add to the drama, at noon on those same two days the walls forming the arrowhead of Building J are simultaneously illuminated, highlighting the conquest slabs. The ritual importance of Building P is emphasized by the elaborate Shrine directly in front of it.

Just north of Building J you'll see a complex of buildings G, H and I, also thought to have been an important site for religious ceremonies.

Los Danzantes (the dancers) are a collection of friezes depicting grotesque or distorted human figures. They date from the earliest years of Monte Alban. You'll find some of the 300 that have been found along the wall of Building L, or Palace of the Dancers, near the southwest corner of the main plaza. The exposed friezes are copies, but several original ones are visible in a protected area near the north end of the palace (or temple), and in the visitors' center. 

Although they've been called “dancers” for more than a century because of their striking poses, that's one thing they definitely are not. You're welcome to come up with your own theory about what they are, since archaeologists are still unsure. Various authorities argue that they represent captured and tortured enemies, mythological giant ancestors of the Zapotecs, sacrificial victims or volunteers, shamans, or simply decorations. One intriguing theory is that they are medical case studies, and as such, would be a very early indication of the development and diffusion of medical knowledge by the Zapotecs. If you look closely, you'll see that many of them do seem to show anatomical details, childbirth, etc. It's known that the ancient Zapotecs practiced dental and cranial surgery. You can see some of their work in the on-site museum.

 Danzante bas-relief, possibly depicting childbirth

System IV is a compound typical of later Zapotec constructions. It consists of a square pyramid-shaped platform that had a temple on top, plus its own small plaza with a shrine in the center. It's very similar to Compound M, just south of Los Danzantes. Outside the north side of the System IV stands a striking stone column, or stele, with calendar-related glyphs. This may well have been used to track the position of the sun at key points of the year.

 Astronomical or Calendrical Stele at Monte Alban

The North Platform is a large complex of structures that occupies the entire north end of the site. You can see the remains of a temple supported by columns, a large sunken plaza with a tomb in the center, and the remains of many other structures and tombs. Some of the tombs have striking multicolored murals. Unfortunately, they are not open to the public. Archaeologists tell us that this part of the site reveals intensive contact with Teotihuacan, a large and powerful city-state that flourished in the Valley of Mexico, near modern Mexico City, between about 100 BC and 800 AD. Archaeologists have also found signs of a significant Zapotec enclave at Teotihuacan from about 100 BC to 350 AD.

The on-site museum features inscribed stone monoliths, or stelae, two of which reveal the earliest writing in Mesoamaeria, one of just five places in the world where writing was invented. You'll also see some of the original conquest stones and “dancers,” pottery, figurines, urns, and a reproduction of one of the many burials found in tombs throughout the site. There are also skulls showing deliberate “cosmetic” deformation and dental modification, and some showing trepanation, or skull surgery. 

In short, when you come to Oaxaca, do not miss Monte Alban!

Robert Adler
Oaxaca, Mexico

Fair use note: This description of Monte Alban is available for free for personal, non-commercial use. It can be downloaded, printed, duplicated or disseminated for that purpose; simply credit Robert Adler.