Monte Alban Archaeological Ruin Site, Oaxaca,Mexico

Monte Alban Oaxaca Ruin Site, Mexico, Adventure Travel

Monte Alban ruin site in Oaxaca saw its first archaeological excavation in the 1890s and then
the first modern scientific mapping and excavation in 1930 when Mexican Archaeologist Alfonso
Caso headed a 16 year excavation.
Monte Alban Archaeological Ruin site is a huge site that sprawls over three peaks with thousands
of house sites and terraced fields still visible on the hillsides below the platform mound
complexes which comprise the museum and site that is opened to the public.

In 1932 the Alfonso Caso excavations uncovered tomb 7 and the trove of Mixtec art and tomb offerings that
numbered some 500, much of it amber, obsidian, turquoise, and lost wax process gold. The Mixtec
people, a group that entered the region after the decline of the city, used the Zapotec tombs to bury their
royal dead, leaving the Tomb 7 offerings in the 14th century.

Monte Alban's Zapotec builders laid out the city with a north south orientation 1,300 feet above the River
Atoyac and the alluvial valley. Starting in 500 BC, they quarried stone from the hilltop and flattened the
peak to make a broad level plaza. By 300 AD the population had risen to 30,000 people by some
estimates. The city has stone platforms running the length of the quarter mile plaza, tombs primarily on the
eastern and northern slopes, and two five ball courts two excavated and stabilized.

Glyphs carved in 300 BC depict defeated leaders of neighboring
villages in death some researchers have speculated while others
say the stones called the Danzantes( the Dancers) depict sick
and injured people. Many stelae have a glyph that some claim
depict a mutilated penis, while others propose this as a symbol of
fertility..

Monte Alban Ruin
Site in Oaxaca,
Mexico is still just
10% excavated but
the huge site, one of
the oldest stone
building complexes
in Mexico, sprawls
over three Peaks.
Monte Alban Ruin
has remnants of
thousands of house
sites and terraced
fields visible on the
hillsides

In 750-850 AD the people left
Monte Alban

Monte Alban Ruin Site 500 BC-800 AD

17* 20' 96* 59'

The Mixtec people , a group from the northern mountains entered the valley of
Oaxaca and used the abandoned city of Monte Alban as a burial ground. While
showing respect for the bodies they found within the old tombs, they would move
skeletons and offerings aside to place their own royalty within the tombs built lt by
the Zapotec people, the original builders of Monte Alban.

Hotel Rivera del Angel ( four blocks south, four blocks west of the Zocalo) has a
tour bus terminal where trips to many Oaxacan sites are available including
Monte Alban. Round trip bus $3.00 USD approximately. ((38 Pesos) Stay as
long as you like. the last bus leaves the ruin at 5:00 PM
Monte Alban site open 8:00 Am to 5:00 PM Allow three to four hours to visit
the ruin

This standing stone is positioned to
show the movement of the sun and
the day of zenith at Monte Alban

Monte-Alban-Oaxaca

Monte Alban in Oaxaca is one of Mexico's most important ruin sites. The
archaeological site just outside of Oaxaca City in Mexico is a huge site
and one of the oldest stone building complexes in the Americas. Monte
Alban Ruin Site is open to visitors seven days a week.

Monte Alban Archaeological Site, Oaxaca, Mexico,

Monte Alban Archaeological
Site at 1300 feet above the
Valley of Oaxaca

Monte Alban Archaeological
Ruin Site above Oaxaca City