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Monte Albán: The Zapotec Capital

The Christian era was just beginning for the Western world when a magnificent cultural empire thrived in the city of Monte Albán.

Only ten kilometers west from Oaxaca, Monte Albán was one of the very first cities in the new world. Founded approximately in 500 B.C., it was built to serve as a capital for the Zapotec tribe who add settled in the three surrounding valleys for a few centuries. As a result, the founders went to great effort to level the top of the hill and create their grand plaza. The city grew rapidly to dominate the whole valley of Oaxaca, and remained as the cultural and religious center of the ‘cloud people’, the Zapotec, for over a millennium.

The Zapotec had a relatively advanced civilization, with both a written and numerical system, and used a calendar of 365 days. Their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics is especially amazing. Several building were designed in such a way that some of the rocks on the pyramids are striked by the sun or the moon at a precise day of the year, in order to mark the soltices, equinoxes or May 8th (for planting). This is considered proof that the Zapotecs were aware centuries before Galileo that the earth and planets revolve around the sun, and that the moon revolves around the earth.

The Grand Plaza

These ceremonial buildings are right in the center of the grand plaza

The main square of Monte Albán, called the Grand Plaza was the heart of the city, and the site of its huge marketplace surrounded by its civic and ceremonial buildings. The architectural remains show considerable complexity of its architectural design.

In the center of the plaza stand two groups of constructions. The largest was an altar made of 3 buildings (I, H and G), and had tunnels linking the other temples on the site - maybe to allow priests to make sudden and magical appearances. Next to the altar is a smaller structure shaped, building J, without right angles. The uniqueness of this structure has led some scholars to assert that it acted as an astronomical observatory. The carvings on the building represent neighboring cities, possibly a list of conquered towns.

Platforms

The Northern Platform, shown on the picture at the top of this page, is nearly as large as the grand plaza, and was rebuilt several time over the centuries. The main staircase ended in a large hall with what was probably an impressive stone roof, supported by a dozen columns that still stand today. On either side of the main cases are chambers containing tombs. More ahead is the smaller plaza shown on the picture at the top of this page, surrounded by 3 small pyramids - Building D, VG and E -, as well as the temple of the two columns. Farther west is the sunken patio with a small alter in its center.

Once a popular playground for Zapotecs: a 1,500 years old ball court

The southern platform houses the tallest structure: an unrestored pyramid. This is the best place to take photographs and view the site as a whole.

Some of the best examples of Monte Alban's bas-relief sculptures were found in the southwest corner of the main plaza. The Danzante stones were originally considered depictions of "Dancers" (hence the name Danzantes). But a more likely interpretation is that the "dancing" men are tortured war prisoners. The scrolls which emanate from their bowels and genitalia are probably depictions of ritual mutilation. These may be linked to the conquests graved on Building J.

Another key discovery took place in 1932, when Mexican archeologist Alfonso Caso opened tomb Number 7 to find a treasure whose value is second only to that of Tutankhamen of Egypt. The gold, silver, jade and other artifacts are on display at the Santo Domingo museum in Oaxaca.