The civic-ceremonial site of Monte Alban is located atop a hill artificial level, with a height of 1,940 m (6,400 feet) above mean sea level rises about 400 meters (1,300 feet) from the bottom the valley. Besides the aforementioned monumental core, the site features hundreds of artificial terraces and a dozen groups of architecture mounds that cover the surrounding mountains and the flanks (Blanton 1978). The archaeological ruins in the nearby hills Atzompa and El Gallo north have traditionally been seen as an integral part of the old city as well.
Besides being one of the first cities in Mesoamerica, Monte Alban importance also stems from its role as a prominent Zapotec political and socio-economic of nearly a thousand years. Founded towards the end of the Middle Formative period in the year 500 BC by the Terminal Formative (c. 100 BC-200 AD) Monte Albán had become the capital of a community-scale expansionist policy that dominated much of the land highlands of Oaxaca and shared with other regional Mesoamerican states such as Teotihuacan, north (Paddock, 1983, Marcus 1983). The city had lost its political prominence in the late Late Classic (ca. 500-750) and shortly thereafter was largely abandoned. small-scale reoccupation, opportunistic reuse of old structures and tombs, marking ritual visits the archaeological history of the place in the colonial period.
The origin of the name of the site is clear, and test recommendations in relation to its range of origin of alleged corruption of a native Zapotec name as "Danibaan" (Holy Hill) and a reference from colonial times to Spanish soldier by the name of the Alban Hills Montalban or Italy. The ancient name of the Zapotec city is not known, as the abandonment occurred centuries before the drafting of the first available ethnohistorical sources.
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