Monte Alban

Stela 18
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The cheapest and easiest way to get to Monte Alban from Oaxaca is to take one of the hourly buses that depart from the Hotel Rivera del Angel, at Mina 518 in Oaxaca, starting at 0830 and departing every hour thereafter until lunchtime. You must go into the office at the back of the car park to buy your ticket, and do book a day ahead if you can as the buses do get busy. The journey to the site takes about 20 minutes.

If you go on the 0930 bus, then you are obliged to come back on the 1300 bus, and this time is written on your return ticket. Seat numbers are allocated, so if you do want to return on a later bus, you may find that it is already full, and apparently you may also be charged again for the return leg of your journey. However, we found that 3 hours was a comfortable amount of time to see this site, and the small museum.

Image on slab at Temple of Danzantes.
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From about 500 BC the new city of Monte Alban became the capital of the Zapotec state, eclipsing San Jose Mogote, and remained so for the entire Classic period. The Zapotec elite who ruled Monte Alban maintained strong ties with Teotihuacan by means of groups of emissaries who lived in the Zapotec quarter of the large capital of central Mexico.

However, it was characterised by having a true State as its system of government, led primarily by the priestly class. A large part of its economy was supported by the cultivation of corn, beans, squash and other rain-fed crops grown on the system of terraces built on the slopes of the surrounding hills.

Overview of part of Monte Alban.
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Monte Alban became one of the most important centres of cultural influence during the Classic Period - in architecture, sculpture and painting.

Monte Alban was continuously occupied for more than 13 centuries, from 500 BC to 850 AD, after which is was gradually abandoned for reasons that are still not clear. Even after its abandonment, its ruins were always regarded as sacred by the Zapotecs who built it, and by the Mixtecs who arrived in the valley at a later date.

In 1987 the site was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Observatory.
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One of the earliest buildings to be built on the site was the Temple of the Danzantes, and the remains of this can be clearly seen today. It was originally covered in about 300 stone slabs, decorated with images - it was originally thought that these images represented dancers, hence the name, however current thinking is that they show sacrificed prisoners, often missing their genitals and hearts.

Building J, often referred to as The Observatory, sits at 45 degrees to the other buildings around the site, and is in the middle of the main plaza. Arrow shaped in form, it's function is not entirely clear but it is certain that it had an astronomical meaning. Stone slabs on its walls bear the names of conquered cities.

At 5.8m high, Stela 18 is the highest and one of the oldest stelae that has been found at this site. It was erected between 100 BC and 300 AD, and is thought to have served as an astronomical instrument to verify mid-day, one of the four pre-Hispanic subdivisions in a day.

Monte Alban sits in a dominant position on top of a hill overlooking modern day Oaxaca, and from the site you can see the Auditorium and the Planetarium in the town far below. The site is very open, with little shelter, and can get very hot.