Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán

The Zapotecs levelled a mountaintop to build Monte Albán, whose plazas, pyramids and ball courts surveyed the Oaxaca valleys for over a millennium — Olmec influences came before them and Mixtecs after, across some 1,500 years of occupation. In the valley below, colonial Oaxaca unfolds on a Spanish grid in green volcanic stone, its sturdy buildings braced against earthquakes. UNESCO joined city and archaeological site in one World Heritage inscription in 1987.