OAXACAN RUINS - SEPTEMBER 1983

OAXACA VALLEY: MONTE ALBAN, TULE AND MITLA!

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MONTE ALBÁN

Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. From about 500 B.C. through 800 A.D., Monte Alban, located at an altitude of 1941m on the top of an artificially-levelled mount, which rises 400 m above the Oaxaca Valley, flourished as the capital of the Zapotecs. Monte Albán was named Danipaguache in the Zapotec language; what a name...




"THE SITE is located approximately 9 km to the west of the city of Oaxaca City, perched high above the surrounding valley"






"GRAND PLAZA seen from the Northern Platform - The archaeological site is built around the Gran Plaza, approximately 300 meters by 200 meters, with three pyramids occupying the centre of the plaza, along with the enigmatic Building J"





"PYRAMID SYSTEMS AND CENTRAL BUILDINGS"


"DANZANTES - The oldest carved stones at the site are the Dancers, featuring drawings of naked men in contorted and twisted poses. The notion that they depict dancers is now largely discredited, and the present consensus is that they represent those who lived and died in Monte Alban, including captives, warriors, and the sacrificed"

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TULE


"ARBÓL DE TULE - Santa Maria del Tule, about 13 kilometres east of Oaxaca, is famous for its Tree, a Taxodium mucionatum, which is two thousand years old, about 40 m high and 42 m wide at its bottom. The Tule Tree has a volume of 705 cubic meters and an approximated weight of 509 020 kilograms. In its shade more than 500 people can be sheltered, and it takes about 30 individuals, hand to hand, to hold it at ground-level..."


"TULE CHURCH - Front view of the church with football playground..."

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MITLA

San Pablo de Mitla is located about 40 km southeast of the city of Oaxaca. While archaeological evidence shows that Mitla was occupied by 500 BC, the earliest construction dates to only about 200 AD. Construction of pre-Columbian style buildings continued up until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the 1520s. The ruins of Mitla are one of Mexico's most interesting sacred places.


"CACTUS - Mitla's archeological site consists of 5 main groups of construction, the oldest of which is believed to date from between 450 and 700 A.C. High cactus receive the visitors to the site"


"CHURCH OF SAN PABLO - In 1494 the Aztecs conquered Mitla and sacked the city. Once the Spanish took over, they found their efforts to convert locals to Catholicism thwarted by competition from native beliefs, manifesting themselves at ancient buildings such as those at Mitla. To combat the problem, the Spanish built a new church on top of a former temple"




"THE SITE - The archaeological zone of Mitla includes five main groups of structures and by the beginning of the Christian era the town had stretched for more than two thirds of a mile along either side of the Mitla River"


"THE PRE-COLUMBIAN BUILDINGS that survived still retain traces of paintwork"



"INSIDE THE PALACE"



"THE PALACE WALLS are decorated with distinctive geometric mosaics that characterize Mitla's buildings. Each frieze consists of up to 100,000 separate pieces of cut stone. The motif of these intricate geometric mosaics are believed to be a stylized representation of the Sky Serpent and therefore a symbol of the pan-regional deity, Quetzalcoatl"

OAXACA - SEPTEMBER 1983

WELCOME TO THE FREE AND SOVEREIGN STATE OF OAXACA!

Our 1983 Mexican trip was entirely planned at my desk (itinerary, flights, hotels, tours...) and then requested to the travel agency (the travel agency started commercially selling the same trip the following year, but paid no copyright royalties...). The idea was to start in Mexico City, see some Aztec, Zapotec, Olmec and Mayan ruins, have some rest in Cancun - then a not yet fully crowded resort - and return to Mexico City to get back to New York and head home, via Madrid. This was a non repeated more than a month-long holiday, which started in New York, went through New England, Quebec, Washington DC and Mexico.

Our second destination in Mexico was The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, as it is named, and we flew the 45 minute Aeromexico flight to get its capital city: Oaxaca. Oaxaca is located in the Oaxaca Valley at an altitude of about 1550 m, and is a good example of Spanish colonial town planning, with a rectangular grid of streets surrounding a central square, the zócalo. Oaxaca was included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 1987.

That was long before the Oaxaca Protests...

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HOTEL VICTORIA



"ROOM VIEW - We booked the Hotel Victoria, a very nice hotel in the middle of a huge garden on the top of the Fortin Hill. It was not very far away from city centre and was supposed to have a beautiful view over the city, being a bit out of reach for the possibly unpleasant annoyances of staying at night in the downtown area. We were given a room with a beautiful view towards the garden and the city centre"


"VIEW from the Hotel restaurant. The El Tule restaurant was a very nice one, and had a fabulous view. It was there that I tried the famous mole negro ozaqueno: chicken with a spicy chocolate sauce... I adore trying local food, but didn’t become a huge fan of the Oaxacan black mole"


"LOBBY BAR, a nice place to enjoy the views"



"SWIMMING POOL - The hotel pool was also one of the reasons why I choosed to stay at the Victoria. It was the best hotel pool in Oaxaca, by that time, if not the only..."


"NIGHT VIEW"

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DOWNTOWN OAXACA




"CATHEDRAL - The Catedral Metropolitana de Oaxaca, originally started in 1535, extensively rebuilt in 1730 after a series of earthquakes and fires, and finally completed in 1752, is an impressive building. The cathedral's Baroque façade includes a fine relief of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary above the central door, and the two solid bell towers. The portal design is in eighteenth century baroque style. It is formed by triple portals with fifteen quadrants with access bays, sculpture niches, and generous relief"



"CALLES - The streets in the downtown area follow a rectangular grid pattern, with lots of interesting two-storey buildings"





"PARKS - Oaxaca has numerous gardens and parks. Some of them provide you with useful shade in the hot sunny days, as well as with some interesting scenes"


MURAL - Oaxaca is also known as Oaxaca de Juarez, since it is the birthplace of Benito Juarez, one of the most important heroes in the Mexican History. This mural by Arturo Garcia Bustos at the Government building depicts important figures in Mexican history. The faces in the top centre are Benito Juarez and his wife, Margarita Maza"


"SANTO DOMINGO DE GUZMÁN was built in the sixteenth century, is the most important of the numerous baroque ecclesiastical buildings in Oaxaca, and is considered the most important colonial building of the city. It is larger than the Cathedral of Oaxaca, also a Dominican construction"


"CLOISTER - The Cloister of Santo Domingo has Renaissance characteristics. The lower floor communicates with upper by a monumental staircase similar to the one at the Escorial in Madrid"

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MUSEO RUFINO TAMAYO





"MUSEUM - Rufino Tamayo was born in Oaxaca, and decided to leave his collections of pre-Columbian art to the City where he was born. The pieces of the Tamayo collection are from 1600 BC to 1521 AD"