Being visible from anywhere in the central part of the Valley of Oaxaca, the impressive ruins of Monte Albán attracted visitors and explorers throughout the colonial and modern eras*
Monte Albán is one of the most significant of Mexico’s pre-Columbian monuments. The main ceremonial, political, and economic center of the pre-Hispanic peoples who lived in the region, it was populated and inhabited for about twelve hundred years.**
**Oaxaca at the Crossroads, Managing Memory, Negotiating Change by Selma Holo
View of Main Plaza from the North Platform. The South Platform can be seen in the distance.
One characteristic of Monte Albán is the large number of carved stone monuments one encounters throughout the plaza. The earliest examples are the so-called "Danzantes" (literally, dancers), They represent naked men in contorted and twisted poses, some of them genitally mutilated. The figures are said to represent sacrificial victims, which explains the morbid characteristics of the figures. The Danzantes feature physical traits characteristic of Olmec culture. The 19th century notion that they depict dancers is now largely discredited, and these monuments, dating to the earliest period of occupation at the site (Monte Albán I), are now seen to clearly represent tortured, sacrificed war prisoners, some identified by name, and may depict leaders of competing centers and villages captured by Monte Albán.*
