Oaxacan Flowering Trees at Pre-Columbian Monte Albán

View past the east ball park toward the observation temple at Monte Albán.

Imagine growing up in Oaxaca and spending your childhood days wandering about the pre-Columbian archeology site of Monte Albán. That’s precisely where our guide played as a kid. Back when areas were not roped off, tombs were unlocked and kids could rummage through the broken pieces of stucco floor to search for arrowheads. A sacred place that being kids they probably took for granted. But how exciting!

The Zapotec people were creative and they knew a lot more math than most of us today. The orientation of the complex shows an understanding of astronomy. For example, there is an observatory with a pointed end that resembles an arrowhead and points at a 45-degree angle. The Zapotec would cross sticks to cast shadows, and when the sun moved, they then knew how long it took for a shadow to fall on another group of sticks. They could measure the length of a month and / or a day this way.

In many of the temples, you’ll find a hole leading to a tunnel. Priests climbed into the hole and traveled through a tunnel to emerge from another hole in stairs of a temple across the way. It was magic. Our guide used to play in those tunnels as a kid. There are also holes to let in sunlight, which defined the spring and fall equinox. The Zapotec capital was created 500 B.C., inhabited by Olmecs, Zapotec and Mixtecs.

The Monte Albán site, which was once all red, consists of a number of temples, an observatory, a magnificent courtyard once covered in stucco, ball parks, water systems fed by canals, homesites with tombs, and it’s not yet completed uncovered. It is strategically situated on the perfect spot for safety and longevity, on a flat mountain top. The morning glory tree, or casahuate, produces white flowers that bloom from November to February and it’s how Monte Albán got its name. Of course, it was known by several other names the Spaniards could not pronounce, so they called it Oaxaca (Wah-haka). The white flowering trees covered the mountain like snow.

Below are a few of the photos I shot of the flowering trees still growing at Monte Albán.

The native word for the Guaje tree seed pod is Huāxyacac, which Spaniards could not pronounce; hence the name, Oaxaca. The seed pods are edible.

The morning glory tree, the Casahuate, covered the “white mountain” in white flowers.

The pencil trees at Monte Albán produce tiny flowers at the tips but cause allergic reactions upon touch.

The kapok tree, or ceiba, produces fruits that release, when mature, cotton fibers, and are protected from predators by myriad thorns on the branches and trunk.

Plumeria bloom in Oaxaca and are found at Monte Albán ruins.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub