Landmark North America
Monte Albán
Monte Albán is an old city on top of a mountain in Mexico. People built big stone platforms and a huge plaza there long ago!
Monte Albán was the ancient capital of the Zapotec people, on a mountain in the middle of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. It was founded about 500 BCE and lasted until about 850 CE. Its builders carved the mountain into terraces and built platforms, stairways and a great plaza.
Monte Albán, the ancient Zapotec capital, was founded about 500 BCE by people of the Valley of Oaxaca and collapsed between about 800 and 850 CE. At its largest it covered 6.5 square kilometers and had up to 25,000 people, says Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). With the historic center of Oaxaca, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
Photo: Ljuba brank at Slovenian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Monte Albán
Monte Albán is in Mexico, on top of a mountain. From up there, you can see a wide valley.
Long ago, it was a busy city. Today, its stone buildings stand around a big grassy plaza.
Monte Albán stands on a mountain in the middle of the Valley of Oaxaca, about 8 kilometers west of the city of Oaxaca. Because it is so high, it looks out over the whole valley.
It was the ancient capital of the Zapotec people and the first city in the highlands of Oaxaca. Nobody knows the name its builders gave it.
INAH calls Monte Albán the ancient capital of the Zapotecs and the first city in the highlands of Oaxaca. It sits at the center of the Valley of Oaxaca, 8 kilometers west of Oaxaca de Juárez, and its height gives a panoramic view of the valley, which let its people control the land around them and protect themselves.
Its pre-Hispanic name is not known. UNESCO calls it the most important archaeological site of the Valley of Oaxaca, and lists it together with the historic center of Oaxaca as one World Heritage Site.
- Where
- 8 km west of Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Lived in
- about 500 BCE – 850 CE
- People
- Zapotec
- Main Plaza
- about 7.5 hectares
A capital that lasted 1,300 years
People started building the city about 2,500 years ago.
It grew big. Up to 25,000 people lived there!
Monte Albán was founded about 500 BCE by people who lived in the Valley of Oaxaca. It grew to cover 6.5 square kilometers, with up to 25,000 people.
It was a market center and a large political unit that joined other communities in the valley together. The city lasted about 1,300 years. People began to leave it between 800 and 850 CE, possibly because of a drought.
According to INAH, the city was founded about 500 BCE, grew to 6.5 square kilometers and up to 25,000 inhabitants, and is thought to have collapsed between 800 and 850 CE, possibly because of a drought. It was a market center and a large political unit that brought other communities of the valley together.
UNESCO says the site was inhabited for 1,500 years by a succession of peoples, and that the Zapotec capital flourished from 500 BCE to 850 CE, when, for reasons not established, its abandonment began. From 550 to 700 CE the seat of power moved for a time to Atzompa, about 5 kilometers to the northwest.
A mountaintop shaped by hand
The builders carved the mountain into flat steps called terraces.
People built their houses on the terraces.
UNESCO says the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and mounds of Monte Albán were carved out of the mountain itself. Builders made terraces on the hillsides, along with dams and channels for water.
A survey found 2,073 terraces, most of them for homes. Homes were square, with a patio in the middle and a narrow entrance.
UNESCO dates the main part of the center, a 300-meter esplanade running north to south with a platform at either end, to the Monte Albán II (c. 300 BCE–100 CE) and III phases. Phase II brought the urbanization of the site: terraces on the hillsides and a system of dams and conduits.
INAH's survey recorded 2,073 terraces, most of them residential. Houses were square, with a central patio and a narrow entrance. A typical Zapotec feature is the double scapular panel, a wall decoration with panels in two planes and a square hanging from the upper frame, similar to the panels of Teotihuacan but open at the bottom.
Platforms, a ball court and carved stones
A big platform closes the plaza at each end.
There is also a ball court, shaped like a capital letter I. People played a ball game there long ago!
The Main Plaza covers about 7.5 hectares. The huge North Platform closes it on the north side, and the South Platform on the south.
The ball court was built around 100 BCE. Seen from above, it is shaped like a capital letter I, and it is 26 meters long and 5 meters wide. Carved stones, like the ones called the Danzantes, show symbols of Zapotec writing.
INAH calls the North Platform the most important structure: an enormous base platform of two levels that closes the Great Plaza on the north and holds the Sunken Courtyard, 50 meters on each side and 3 meters deep, with stairways on all four sides.
The ball court, built about 100 BCE and explored from 1933 to 1935 by Alfonso Caso and his team, is a sunken, I-shaped court 26 by 5 meters, with a stone circle at its center interpreted as a marker; five ball courts were built at Monte Albán. Carved stones such as the Danzantes, and Stelae 12 and 13, which are among the oldest examples of Zapotec writing, show its script.
- Terraces found
- 2,073
- Ball court built
- about 100 BCE
- Ball court
- 26 m × 5 m
Exploring the old city
In this photo, you can see the big grassy plaza and stone buildings with steps.
Far away, there are blue mountains.
This photo was taken on 26 October 2010. It looks across the grassy plaza to stone platforms with wide stairways, with a large stone slab in front and hazy mountains in the distance.
In 18 seasons of digging, the archaeologists Alfonso Caso and Jorge R. Acosta showed that Monte Albán was a great center of Zapotec culture. Today it is an archaeological site that visitors can explore, with a site museum.
The photograph (26 October 2010, by Ljuba brank) looks over the grassy plaza toward stone platforms, stairways and low buildings, with a plain upright stone slab in the foreground, trees, and mountains on the horizon.
INAH credits 18 excavation seasons led by Alfonso Caso and Jorge R. Acosta with defining Monte Albán as a great center of ancient Zapotec culture and turning it into a place for visitors. The protected area covers nearly 22 square kilometers and takes in three hills: Monte Albán, El Gallo and Atzompa.
Amazing facts
-
Nobody knows what the people who built Monte Albán called their city!
Monte Albán's original name is not known.
The city's pre-Hispanic name is not known.
-
Some carved stones at Monte Albán show very old writing!
Two carved stones, Stelae 12 and 13, are among the oldest examples of Zapotec writing.
Stelae 12 and 13, once part of the Wall of the Danzantes, are among the oldest examples of Zapotec writing.
-
People made 2,073 flat steps on the mountain to build their homes!
A survey of the mountainsides found 2,073 terraces, most of them used for homes.
INAH's surface survey defined 2,073 terraces, most of them residential.
Words to know
- archaeological site
- a place where people study the remains of how people lived long ago
- plaza
- a large open square in a town or city
- terrace
- a flat step cut into a hillside
- platform
- a raised, flat structure that buildings can stand on
- stela
- an upright stone slab, often carved with pictures or writing (plural: stelae)
- drought
- a long time with too little rain
Discovery challenge
-
In which country is Monte Albán?
Monte Albán stands above the Valley of Oaxaca in which country?
The Zapotec capital of Monte Albán lies in which country?
- Mexico
- Peru
- Egypt
Show the answer
Mexico
Mexico!
Mexico.
Mexico.
-
Which people made Monte Albán their capital?
Monte Albán was the ancient capital of which people?
INAH calls Monte Albán the ancient capital of which people?
- The Zapotecs
- The Vikings
- The Romans
Show the answer
The Zapotecs
The Zapotecs!
The Zapotecs.
The Zapotecs.
-
Where was Monte Albán built?
Where was the city of Monte Albán built?
Monte Albán's builders shaped which landform into their city?
- On top of a mountain
- On an island
- Under the ground
Show the answer
On top of a mountain
On a mountain!
On top of a mountain above the Valley of Oaxaca.
A mountain: its terraces, dams and platforms were carved out of it.
-
How many people lived in Monte Albán at most?
At its largest, how many people lived in Monte Albán?
INAH estimates a population of up to how many people?
- Up to 25,000
- Up to 250
- Up to 2.5 million
Show the answer
Up to 25,000
Up to 25,000!
Up to 25,000.
Up to 25,000.
-
What shape is the ball court?
Seen from above, the ball court is shaped like which capital letter?
The ball court built about 100 BCE has the plan of which letter?
- I
- O
- S
Show the answer
I
Like a capital I!
A capital I.
An I (a double-T plan).
Nearby places
-
Watch
City
Oaxaca de Juárez
Oaxaca de Juárez, often just called Oaxaca, is the capital of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. It lies in a high valley at the foot of the Sierra Madre del Sur. The 2020 census counted 258,913 people in the city, whose old center, laid out in a grid of square blocks, is a World Heritage Site.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Popocatépetl
Popocatépetl is a tall, snow-capped volcano about 70 kilometers southeast of Mexico City. NASA calls it one of Mexico's most active volcanoes: it has been erupting since January 2005, with steam, gas and sometimes ash coming from its crater.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Iztaccíhuatl
Iztaccíhuatl is a long volcanic mountain in central Mexico, next to the volcano Popocatépetl. It was built over many stages of eruptions, and scientists have watched most of its glaciers disappear, including the Ayoloco glacier, which was gone by 2018.
-
Watch
City
Mexico City
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, sits 2,240 meters high in the Valley of Mexico. It was founded in 1521 on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that stood on an island in a lake. About 9.2 million people lived there in 2020, and more than 23 million in the wider metropolitan area.
-
Watch
Landmark
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan, about 50 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, was a huge city almost 2,000 years ago. A long, straight avenue runs through it, lined by giant pyramids, including the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Around 500 CE, it was one of the largest cities in the world.
-
Watch
Landmark
Palenque
Palenque is the ruin of a Maya city in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It grew powerful about 1,500 years ago, when its rulers built palaces, temples and plazas. After people left it, the jungle covered it. UNESCO praises the elegance and lightness of its buildings, and listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1987.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Parícutin
Parícutin is a volcano in the state of Michoacán, in central Mexico. On February 20, 1943, the ground in a cornfield cracked open and a volcano began to grow. It erupted for nine years, until 1952, and built a cone of loose volcanic rock 424 meters high. Scientists watched it the whole time, from its birth to its end.
-
Watch
City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala, in Central America. It was founded in 1776 in a basin among the mountains, about 1,500 meters above sea level, after earthquakes damaged the old capital. Today it is the country's most important city, and its census count in 2018 was 923,392 people.
Explore next
-
Watch
Country
Mexico
Mexico is a large country in southern North America, between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It has smoking volcanoes, ancient cities built by the Maya and other peoples, and about 132 million people, many of them in and around Mexico City.
-
Watch
City
Oaxaca de Juárez
Oaxaca de Juárez, often just called Oaxaca, is the capital of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. It lies in a high valley at the foot of the Sierra Madre del Sur. The 2020 census counted 258,913 people in the city, whose old center, laid out in a grid of square blocks, is a World Heritage Site.
-
Watch
Landmark
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan, about 50 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, was a huge city almost 2,000 years ago. A long, straight avenue runs through it, lined by giant pyramids, including the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Around 500 CE, it was one of the largest cities in the world.
-
Watch
Landmark
Palenque
Palenque is the ruin of a Maya city in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It grew powerful about 1,500 years ago, when its rulers built palaces, temples and plazas. After people left it, the jungle covered it. UNESCO praises the elegance and lightness of its buildings, and listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1987.
-
Watch
Life around the world
Corn and chocolate in Oaxaca, Mexico
In Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, corn has a very long history: maize cobs from a cave in the Valley of Oaxaca were the oldest known in the Americas when they were dated in 2001. Corn is cooked with lime, ground into masa dough and made into tortillas. Oaxaca also has many cacao drinks, including chocolate whisked until foamy with a wooden molinillo.
-
Watch
Landmark
Aasivissuit–Nipisat
Aasivissuit–Nipisat is a World Heritage landscape in West Greenland, north of the Arctic Circle. It stretches from the sea to the ice sheet, and UNESCO says it holds evidence of 4,200 years of people hunting, fishing and moving with the seasons.
-
Watch
Landmark
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge crosses the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1869 to 1883, it was the first bridge to use steel wire for its cables, and its main span was the longest in the world until 1890. Every day, cars, walkers and cyclists still cross it.
-
Watch
Landmark
Calakmul
Calakmul is the ruin of a great Maya city in the rainforest of southern Mexico. People lived in this region for about 1,500 years, from about 500 BCE to about 1000 CE, and UNESCO calls Calakmul the largest site in the area. Today the city and the forest around it are a World Heritage Site.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what archaeologists can learn from the buildings and terraces of an ancient city.
- Describe why people might build a city on a mountaintop.
- Explain what writing on carved stones can tell us about a people.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Monte Albán lasted about 1,300 years. What does a city need to last that long?
- Archaeologists think a drought may have helped end the city. How could a long dry time change people's lives?
- Nobody knows the city's original name. How might we find out more about it?
Try at home or in class
- Make a model mountain from clay, flatten the top into a plaza and cut small terraces down its sides.
- Find Oaxaca on a map of Mexico, then find Mexico City and compare how far apart they are.
Key vocabulary: archaeological site, plaza, terrace, platform, stela, drought
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Monte Albán, Oaxaca (visitor guide, texts by Marcus Winter) , Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
- Monte Albán: North Platform and site elements , Lugares INAH
- Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- File:037 Monte Alban (34).JPG , Wikimedia Commons
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.