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Mexico

Monte Albán

The Levelled Mountain
Lost Cities & Ruins
Gateway town: Oaxaca
Portrait

The Zapotecs flattened a ridge four hundred metres above the Oaxaca valley around 500 BC and built a ceremonial city there for a thousand years, with a stone gallery of carved figures long read as dancers and now thought to be captives. The plaza is the point: stand at the centre and three valleys open around you in every direction.

Nearby in the atlas
Oaxaca — Capital of Mezcal
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