The Ruins of Mexico: Virtual Tour Website
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The hill-top ruins of Monte Albán present us with a truly impressive site on one of the grandest scales to behold in Mexico. Its chief attraction is undoubtedly the splendour and precision of its design, but there are many individual delights to be seen too, including the mysterious Gallery of the Dancers. Along with Teotihuacan, it is the most worthy site for exploration outside of the Yucatán. A stone's throw from Oaxaca City, it is very easy to get to. In the town there are a multitude of companies offering tours. Choose carefully for the best price and make sure that you get a minimum of three hours there, because it will take that long just to walk around it. Culture: Zapotec
Monte Albán probably had the longest continuous history of occupation of any ancient city in Mexico. Its roots as a sophisticated urban centre were certainly among the earliest. Few traces remain of the first phase of its existence and there is considerable debate over the ethinicity of those founders. But by the beginning of the first milennium AD, it already had a population of 17,000 and was one of the biggest settlements in Oaxaca. At some point after then, the Zapotecs made this their new capital following the decline of San José Mogote and the subsequent eras known as Monte Albán II and III saw the creation of the incredible city we see today. From 100 to 600AD, most of the famous structures and plazas were built and the city became the religious and economic heart of an empire whose influences were felt throughout much of the country. We also see important links with Teotihuacan in this phase such as styles of architecture and references in stelae pertaining to high-ranking marriages and trading ties. After 600, Monte Albán began a slow and terminal decline. The reasons, as with many pre-Colombian cities, are now unclear, but as its waning coincided with Teotihuacan's own slide from power, there may have been a common link in terms of climate, disease, migrational changes or any of a dozen other factors. Then again, Monte Albán may have been subject to its own unique reasons for abandonment. Some point to over-farming of the desertified environment, others political in-fighting or the rise of other cities in the region, such as Mitla and Zaachila, who all later eclipsed this older city. But up to the Spanish conquest, Monte Albán was never completely abandoned nor forgotten. From about 800, in the final phase known as Monte Albán V, there was an influx of Mixtecs into the region. They occupied the city and continued to perform religious ceremonies here. Mixtec tombs were even built on the outside of the site which can be seen today, but the main heart of Monte Albán was never lived in again. The Spanish city of Oaxaca later drew the entire population away from the hill-top, and in recent years the encroachment of that town has led to Monte Albán being officially declared a protected site.n For more about other Zapotec cities, see Cultural History. Tour (Scroll down to follow complete tour, or click on feature below and use your BACK key to return to the map) What
impresses most about Monte Albán is the skill of its design and planning. It
occupies the whole of the top of the hill where we find it. In the centre is the
huge Main Plaza, a vast and wide open area upon which we find many of the site's
most interesting features. At either end are two higher platforms; the southern
one being smaller and only partially restored; the one to the north being larger
and containing the elite residential and ceremonial quarters.
1. Building X 2. Jewelled Building 3. Building D 4. Building VG 5. Building E 6. Tomb 104 7. Roman Building 8. Building B 9. Building A 10. Ball Court 11. Building II 12. Building P 13. Palace 14. Mound Q 15. Mound III 16. Observatory 17. Building I 18. Building H 19. Building G 20. Building O 21. Building M 22. Gallery of the Dancers 23. Building L 24. Building IV 25. Building N PANORAMA The road to the site ends at the museum and entrance. To the right of the entrance is one ruined, isolated structure called Building X. It is not possible to enter, but from the entrance one can see an internal patio with columns. A basin in the floor may have caught sacrificial blood.
A path leads up towards
the main body of the city and to a structure which has been called the Jewelled
Building which is not very well restored but retains an idea of its size. Its
name arises from a large amount of mica and obsidian found here. The facade that
we see here shows the remains of a decorated staircase in a style not seen
elsewhere in this city. Some archaeologists think that it could have been an
official "embassy" of another power - obviously Teotihucan springs to
mind.
The track can be followed
towards the Main Plaza, where most tours head first, but we will walk around the
right hand side of the Jewelled Building and climb up to the North Platform
which was the highest part of the city and some think corresponded to the elite
quarters of the city's rulers. We first come upon the Upper Plaza, sometimes
known as the Patio of the Geodesic Vertex, after Building VG on the east side
which was used as a modern survey marker. Around the Upper Plaza are three main buildings and an altar platform that make up a temple complex. The buildings are all of the classic Monte Albán style: pyramidal with wide, sloping stair-ways. The tallest is Building VG; to the north is Building D and opposite this is Building E.
If
this latter structure
(Bulding E) is climbed, a
reconstructed stela can be seen on the other face depicting a change of power
ceremony. Of course, the other reason for climbing this building is that it
affords the best panorama of Monte Albán. The breath-taking scale of the site
can be first appreciated from here, especially its harmonious,
geometrical design.
Main Plaza: Grand Panorama from Building E Before we begin the
exploration of the areas on view here, and depending on time, we can leave the
Upper Plaza by a track that goes northwards and after leading through some
scrubby undergrowth away from the North Platform, will bring us to Tomb 104. It
consists of a ruined temple complex with columns and a short flight of steps
leading down to the gated entrance of the tomb itself. It is now empty, but the
skeleton of the Zapotec ruler today rests in the Anthropological Museum in
Mexico City.
Returning to the North Platform, we descend from the Upper Plaza past a larger but partially restored structure called the Roman Building (probably so-called because of its style of construction) to a feature known as the Sunken Patio. This is a square depression, fifty metres long with a shrine in the centre and with a stair-way on each side. The low and ruined Building B stands to the west of it. Apparently this building and the shrine date from period V of the city´s history, after the glory years; therefore the authors were the Mixtecs. To the left and forming the south-east corner of the North Platform is the finely restored Building A, again in the style typical to be seen here.
On the south side of the
Sunken Patio are the stumps of six monumental columns atop a huge staircase
ascending from the Main Plaza, that once formed a powerfully impressive entrance
to this restricted area of the city. One can still get an idea of the impression
that this feature must have given to those ordinary people permitted to ascend. Having finished this tour
of the North Platform, we will now descend the stair-way just mentioned to the
floor of the Main Plaza. This is the largest open space of any ancient city in
Mexico and is lined by buildings on all sides in addition to a row of structures
in the centre. We will navigate it in a clockwise direction, starting with the
Ball Court, in the north-east (near left) corner.
This is 42 metres long and
actually forms a depression with steep, stepped sides. It dates from the phase
II period, around 250AD. The Ball Court at San José Mogote is a near replica of
this. Moving south, we come to
Building II, the first in a line of structures bordering the east side of the
Main Plaza. This has interesting panelled designs and originally had a columned
temple on top.
Next in line is Building
P, which is flat-topped without panelling, but with a broader flight of steps.
Just in front of it is a square depression with an altar in the centre that
dates from the final, Mixtec period. Because Building P lies directly facing
Building H in the centre of the plaza, it is thought to have had some ceremonial
significance with those central structures.
Walking on, we come to a
lower construction called the Palace. It still retains a doorway with cross
lintel (although this was probably reconstructed). Walking through this, we come
into a small residential complex atop the building consisting of rooms around a
central courtyard.
The last building on this
side of the plaza is an unexcavated construction called Mound Q, but whose form,
similar to other previous temple pyramids, is still discernible. We have now reached the
southern end of the Main Plaza and are confronted with the massive South
Platform immediately bordering this far side. Although smaller than its
counterpart on the north side of the city, the South Platform's shape is more
easily definable. However, only the side facing the Main Plaza has been anything
like excavated. Atop the platform we find a sizeable but largely ruined building
named Mound III and behind it a smaller and even more shapeless unnamed
construction. But the platform is worth climbing the forty-three steps to the
top, if just to obtain a view of the rest of the city from this southern vantage
point.
Mound III
Central Plaza: Panorama from South Platform No doubt the strangely
shaped, pointed building immediately across from the South Platform in the
centre of the Main Plaza will have by now drawn our attention. This is Building
J, or sometimes referred to as the Observatory. One of the most interesting
structures at Monte Albán, it was, as numerous other commentators have noted,
the only one here to have been erected off the standard north-south alignment.
Many believe that this structure was built according to a planetary or stellar
position, hence the title Observatory (the small holes in the side of the
building had no astronomical significance, them being made by modern
archaeologists). There are also numerous stone reliefs on its walls.
From here, we may as well
examine the longer construction behind the Observatory that takes up central
position in the Main Plaza. This has now been labelled as three buildings: G, H
and I, counting along from the north end. The central Building H is the largest
and obviously most important. It can be climbed via a stair-way on the east side
where we find a temple enclosure consisting of walls, column stumps and altars.
There was originally a stair-way on the west face too but was covered over in
one of the later Monte Albán phases. Buildings G and I are stepped temple
pyramids of the normal kind but joined to Building H at the back. If we imagine,
as may well have been the case, that these three structures were originally
conceived as one, then this would have been the largest single building at the
city - a huge temple with a staired access on each face - and while also playing
central stage in terms of its position, this could have been the scene of the
most important religious and ceremonial spectacles. Some believe that this
complex was formed from a natural rock promontory in the centre of the plaza
that had been too difficult to remove. (right to left) Buildings G, H and I We will now retrace our
steps past the Observatory in order to get to the south-west corner of the Main
Plaza, to the right of the South Platform. We find a small complex of a
different style to the rest so far seen. In fact, the buildings that we will
examine on the west side of the Main Plaza are considered to be older than most
of the others. First, is a low, partially
restored platform called Building O, protruding into the Main Plaza, behind
which is an enclosed patio bordered by the larger Building M on the far side.
This has interesting panelled decoration similar to, but more elaborated than,
Building II.
On the north side of
Building M is to be found a small, square sanctuary called the Gallery of the
Dancers, a highlight of this visit to Monte Albán. Set upright around the
perimeter of the enclosure are numerous stone tablets each with a carved relief
of a human figure: the so-called Dancers. But the contorted postures of the
figures is now believed to be far from dancing positions. The main school of
thought professes that these were sacrificial captives with a particular
reference on many reliefs to genital mutilation. The tablets were found buried
inside neighbouring Building L and are ancient indeed, originating from the
Monte Albán I phase; and the oldest relics still in evidence at the site. Many
on view now are reconstructions, but there is believed to be similarity to Olmec
carvings.
Dancers Building L itself lies
just across from the Gallery of the Dancers, another very old structure here. It
has only been partially restored on one side and has suffered the effects of
immense age. There is an archaeologists' tunnel on one face, and a flight of
steps to the top allows you to view a small ruined palatial complex with rooms
and walls.
The final area to be
explored on the Main Plaza lies at the north end of the west side. It is another
complex of the kind composed of Building O and M, seen previously. The low
platform, Building IV, is linked, via another enclosed patio with a central altar
to Building N which, like its counterpart Building M, is taller and wider.
These two buildings, however, are much better preserved and retain a lot of the
panelled designs. On the north side of the linking patio is a broken stela,
pointing like a jagged tooth into the sky.
North Platform: East Flank |
Building X
Tomb
104 
Building II
Building P
and Altar
The Palace
Steps to the South Platform
Building M and (foreground) the Gallery of the Dancers
