Thursday, June 24, 2010

Monte Albán




On our second day in Oaxaca we headed to Monte Albán.  These pre-Columbian ruins are located on a flattened ridge in a mountain range just outside of the city of Oaxaca.  The city was inhabited from about 500 BC to around 750 AD.  It was pretty impressive.


Inside the little museum at Monte Albán


A ball court

A veiw of the surrounding landscape







Stephen next to some carvings of "the dancers" . . .

There were a lot of these carvings found in one area of Monte Albán.  They were originally thought to be dancers, and the lined the walls of one of the buildings.

Later, archaeologists decided that they were carvings of captured enemies who had been castrated!









Funny story with this picture - we asked one of the security guards at the site to take it - an older fellow - and he held the camera upside down!  We don't think he'd ever taken a picture before.



Shade!  It was really hot!
We enjoyed swimming in the pool when we got back to our hotel.

1 comment:

  1. Those are really cool ruins! Funny stories about the "dancers" and the security guard, too. You guys all look good. Good job getting the blog up to date!

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