Monte Alban Oaxaca Mexico 2021 (MYSTERY!) / MUST DO tour of OAXACA

hola buenos dias good morning from oaxaca mexico i'm heidi and i'm adam and together we are the country collectors today we're going to be taking you outside oaxaca central we're taking a tour to monte alban so come along with us on this adventure typical mexico we've been waiting for 20 minutes outside for our bus but apparently they're gonna be here in five minutes i'm excited i don't care uh 40 minutes now i wonder if they're still coming questions i don't know one thing traveling has taught us you just gotta roll with the punches mandelburn an ancient zapotec metropolis monte alban was founded in the 6th century bc and functioned as the zapotec capital for 13 centuries it was the zapotec's main economic and political center for over 1 000 years before it was abandoned it's just so incredible to be walking on the same ground as the zapotecs and the mixed sex and everyone else who came after them this is a really special feeling so this incredible 360 view is beautiful but to the zapotecs it was actually the way that they could see where their enemies were coming from on all sides pretty incredible stuff this is the north platform it likely served as a residential area and private ceremonial site for monte alban's elite this is so incredible i mean when you look at this view you can picture these ancient people just walking around here them building this it took hundreds of years to build this this is the oldest city in north america that is crazy they were here in 500 bc and they slowly started building this they excavated the top of the mountain chopped it off it's just they flattened it and then they built this incredible structure up here where only the elite lived obviously and everyone else sort of moved down the mountain based on their importance in society [Music] these central buildings served as the government center where important public meetings were held due to the topography the acoustics allowed for the announcements to be heard throughout the main plaza which spans 300 by 200 meters the people had to be very careful because the elite could also hear you just as well as you could hear them so any disagreements and policy led to a swift death [Music] right now i am walking in the main plaza the civic center where the markets took place they would trade anything from beans to textiles these carved stones are thought to be depictions of rulers or leaders from neighboring towns around monte alban who were captured and offered as sacrifices cut it right off a different carved stone is found on building j also known as the observatory these stones are called conquest labs and are likely listing the places which the monte alban elites had conquered or [Music] controlled man i am whipped those were some serious steps look at that view [Music] this is where i would want to stay if i was scared of anybody trying to attack me i mean who's going to come up this mountain to get you i could barely walk up the steps look at that and there's a mystery behind where they went people just don't know what happened because the spanish didn't get here yeah aliens maybe who knows the spanish didn't get here until 1500 bc so that was about 900 years after the zapatex lived here so i don't know you can come up with your own story hey thank you so much for coming along on this fun historical journey we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did do you have a favorite archaeological site of ruins that you like to visit please let us know we'd love to hear about it in the comments if you enjoyed the video make sure you leave us a big thumbs up press subscribe and ring that bell so you don't miss out on our future adventures thanks for coming along we'll see you soon [Music] you