Blog 2.8

Our last day in Oaxaca we made our way up to the ruins at the ancient city of Monte Alban. The ancient city was founded in 500 BC and functioned as the capital of the Zapotecs until 800 AD. Today it overlooks the current day city of Oaxaca and serves as an archaeological site as well as a fairly popular tourist destination.

We had a guide walk us through the ruins for about 45 minutes, explaining what certain buildings were (or at least what archaeologists suspect them to be). From star viewing rooms, to tombs, sun dials and arenas for games, this city had a wide array of complex and intricate buildings made by the people who once inhabited the area.

**The Sunken Patio on top of the north platform**

Main Plaza and building J (shot from the south platform)

The structure at the top of the south platform

Once we had finished walking around the grounds and admiring the ruins, we made our way back to the entrance where there was a museum you could access for free, as well as a small gift shop. The museum definitely made me wonder if some of the petroglyphs outside may have been replicas, as there were several large stones with petroglyphs that were kept inside appose to outside at the ruins, but it was hard to be sure of anything without being able to read the signs since they were mostly in Spanish.

The day after we went to Monte Alban we went over to the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, a beautiful church which also has the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca (The Museum of Cultures of Oaxaca) attached to it. The museum had even more artifacts from Mexican history, including items from one of the tombs at Monte Alban (tomb 7). There were several rooms of artifacts that spanned different eras of Mexico’s history and is well worth checking out, especially if you plan on visiting Monte Alban as it helps fill in some of the parts you don’t see at the ruins.

Blog 2.7