MEXICO- MONTE ALBAN (STATE OF OAXACA)

keywords: tourism, travel, history, mountains, monuments, churches, cathedrals, art, backpacking

The State of Oaxaca, adjoining State of Guerrero, its Valles Centrales (Central Valleys) are full of remarkable ruins of prehistoric sites of its people, these ruins of pyramids, terraces and mountain walls, scattered upon its ridges and hill tops, at many inaccessible places small plots of cultivation, remind you that the ancient inhabitants of Oaxaca were busy in cultivation, its villages and markets bustling with creative arts, colourful textiles.On the Sierra Norte are the forested high peaks, to the South, across the mountain ranges, its fabulous coast and beaches, which today have become the centre of tourism.

Monte Albán (White Mountain) a few kms. west of Oaxaca city, is the ancient capital city of Zapotec people. We were amazed at the terraces and courtyards, high mountain walls which were cut away and flattened from the mountain peaks. It gave us the sensation of being at an isolated and solitary place of mysterious landscape, hinged upon the top of the mountain, a haze of vapour and heat wrapping the whole area, making it ethereal. All the ancient monuments of the prehistoric times, tell us about  the toil of the ancient man in the construction of such sites, incalculable time employed, under the authority of the ruler, without regard to the labour of generations in completion of these pyramids, temples of religious ceremonies, eternal fires burning on the mountain tops. The elite of the region buried their dead in the tombs, its maze of tunnels and staircases, is awesome.

In the time of Zapotecs ElMonte Albán was the centre of cultured, organised agriculturist and religious society, its elite lived in splendid dwellings with gardens and terraces, courtyards to play Ball game (Juego de Pelota) in the Gran Plaza of the city, where you will see many remains of temples of worship. Mexico was a society dominated by priests and religious ceremonies were all important.