This first morning in the Oaxaca area we take a tour bus with our guide Eugenio (Eugene for the tour group) and the driver Amador (Eugene refers to him as Lover Boy for the tour group).
We drive out of the city and up a low mountain range from which we can see the city and the valley below.
The remarkable thing about Monte Alban is that it was founded in 500 BC as a theocratic hierarchical society. It was a Zapotec city dominant - and extracting tribute - over the whole valley and as far away as Mexico City (Teotihuacan) for over 1000 years.
Here is the group gathering at the side of the building complex. To build Monte Alban, the Zapotecs flattened the mountain ridge at an altitude of 6300 feet. The site has been extensively reconstructed, although there are many known archaeological zones in it still not excavated.
This is a nice specimen of the jacaranda tree. At this time of year it is full of lavender or violet flowers.
Here we are in Monte Alban.
The ball court.
Excavations found a large number of residential and civic-ceremonial structures and hundreds of tombs and burials. This is the enormous central plaza. The site’s main civic-ceremonial and elite-residential structures are located around it or in its immediate vicinity.
I climbed the steep steps of the south platform just ahead of the Brewers on the way up.
A school group.
Houses had their own burial chambers in the basement.
We drive out of the city and up a low mountain range from which we can see the city and the valley below.
The remarkable thing about Monte Alban is that it was founded in 500 BC as a theocratic hierarchical society. It was a Zapotec city dominant - and extracting tribute - over the whole valley and as far away as Mexico City (Teotihuacan) for over 1000 years. 
Here is the group gathering at the side of the building complex. To build Monte Alban, the Zapotecs flattened the mountain ridge at an altitude of 6300 feet. The site has been extensively reconstructed, although there are many known archaeological zones in it still not excavated.
This is a nice specimen of the jacaranda tree. At this time of year it is full of lavender or violet flowers.
Here we are in Monte Alban.
The ball court.
Excavations found a large number of residential and civic-ceremonial structures and hundreds of tombs and burials. This is the enormous central plaza. The site’s main civic-ceremonial and elite-residential structures are located around it or in its immediate vicinity.
I climbed the steep steps of the south platform just ahead of the Brewers on the way up.
A school group.
Houses had their own burial chambers in the basement.
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