Museum at Monte Alban

Trip of the day is Monte Alban. This place is huge and really impressive.
Dan bar is the original name for Monte Alban.
The levelled hilltop on Monte Alban is the heart of the second largest ceremonial site in Mesoamerica, and is exceeded in size only by Teotihuac�n. It is believed to have supported up to 35,000 people in its heyday, revealing it as an important part of the pre-Columbian American landscape. The site contains some of the earliest undeciphered hieroglyphs found in all of Mesoamerica.
Although this was one of the most enduring of all the civilizations of Mexico (lasting from about 500 B.C. to 800 AD), it experienced a sudden and rapid decline at the same time as the collapse of other pre-Columbian cities elsewhere in Mexico.

Monte Alban: (White Mountain):The previous names for the city were the Mixtec name "Sahandevul" which means "At the Foot of the Sky", and another variation which is derived from the older Zapotecan language, "Danibaan" or Sacred Mountain".
Monte Alban is visible from anywhere in the central part of the Valley of Oaxaca

Believed to have been built around 600 BC, the huge complex of ceremonial buildings on top of Monte Alban mountain has some of the most oddly shaped structures of the ancient world. Not only was much of the stone brought up from the valley floor, so was all the water, as the site has no visible natural source. Blanton's survey of the site (1), suggests that the Monte Alb�n hill itself appear to have been uninhabited prior to 500 BC although the valley is now believed to have been continuously occupied since 2000 BC

There are a large number of carved stone monuments at Monte Alban. The earliest examples are the so-called "Danzantes" (dancers), which represent naked men in contorted and twisted poses, some of them genitally mutilated. The 19th century notion that they depict dancers is now largely discredited, and these monuments, dating to the earliest period of occupation at the site (Monte Alb�n I), clearly represent tortured, sacrificed war prisoners, some identified by name (see below for more).

In its heyday, Monte Alban was the one of the greatest Zapotec 'holy' cities, with a population of over 30,000 . It is estimated that only about 10% of the site has yet been uncovered.
San Jose Mogote. - (The Forerunner to Monte Alban)

The earliest Zapotec city was San Jose el Mogote, also in the Oaxaca Valley and founded about 1600-1400 BC; it was abandoned around 500 BC, when the capital city of Monte Alb�n was founded at the beginning of the Zapotec heyday. The Zapotecs built their new capital city in the middle of the valley of Oaxaca, between three populous valley arms and at the top of this steep hill. Building a city away from major population centres is called 'disembedded capital' by some archaeologists, and Monte Alban is one of very few disembedded capitals known in the ancient world.Read more