Monte Alban

Monte Alban was spectacular to visit - set on top of a flat plain on a hilltop (which was manually flattened back in the day). The area was populated from about 500 BC, and around 200 BC they began levelling the hilltop, and building houses and temples there. If you can imagine what it must have looked like back then, the buildings would have been smooth and painted in a striking black (symbolising death) and red (symbolising life). The acoustics of the site were incredible - it was very easy to have a conversation with somebody standing a good 500 metres away, and echoes would bounce off the walls and sound differently depending on where you were shouting from. It must have been a powerful experience to be around during a religious ceremony. Interesting fact - there were tunnels built under the city, used by the priests during ceremonies whereby they would disappear in a puff of smoke and then pop up somewhere else on another side of the site. Monte Alban also had a hospital and apparently they performed brain surgeries here, with evidence from skeletons that the patients survived...

Nobody quite knows why, but the city was abandoned between 700 and 950 AD - similar to the time Teotihuacán was abandoned. There are a few theories, and most gravitate towards one that explains that the natural resources were all used up.

The ball court. A game similar to soccer was played in these courts. This is a very small one. Unlike other cities, there were no human sacrifices at the end of the game.

Abdul enjoying his new sun-smart Oaxacan hat

Not entirely confident of this, but I think it was where water was stored - it's similar to a diagram we were shown as part of the tour. Sand, charcoal, frogs, fish and plants were used to assist in oxygenating and filtering the water and prevent stagnation.