Building Monte Alban was quite a feat. The main ceremonial pyramids and plazas are in a group known as the "Gran Plaza", located at the crest of a mountain that rises 400m. The Gran Plaza extends roughly 300m N-S and 200m E-W and is nearly level. Making it level involved removing the top bit of the mountain. The hauling was all done by humans: the Zapotecs had neither pack animals nor the wheel. Some of the stone used in the construction of the Gran Plaza came from the mountain, but much if it had to be brought from elsewhere in the valley, again on the backs of human workers or on sledges pushed by teams of workers for stones that were too heavy to carry. Unburdened, it would take me about two hours to walk up to Monte Alban from the valley floor. I can't imagine making the climb in the heat and carrying a heavy load of rocks.
Monte Alban ruled over 200 other communities in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca for about a thousand years. The population of the city grew to about 25000 people, most of whom lived high above the farms, which were mainly on the valley floor. Estimates of the total population of the Valles Centrales at the time vary widely, but it would have been at least several hundred thousand people.
The people of Monte Alban developed writing, a sophisticated calendar and probably had the concept of zero right from the time of the city's foundation. There is evidence to suggest that people from Monte Alban taught astronomy to the people of Teotihuacan (astronomical knowledge is necessary in order to create an accurate calendar). As Teotihuacan grew, it in turn influenced architectural and artistic styles in Monte Alban.
Monte Alban was never reoccupied after it was abandoned. The people of the valley appear to have lost their knowledge of reading and writing; writing appears to be absent from the valley for several centuries after Monte Alban's abandonment.
The rulers of the nearby city of Zaachila claimed to have inherited their right to rule from Monte Alban. The Mixtecs who eventually conquered a large part of the Valles Centrales for a time buried their dead kings in old Zapotec tombs in the ruins of Monte Alban. The treasures from the famous "Tomb 7" date from the Mixtec era.
It's pretty easy to visit the ruins of all the major cities in the Valles Centrales, from the pre-classic city of San Jose El Mogote, to Monte Alban, to the post-classic centres like Yagul and Mitla. At each site, if you look carefully, you can find shards of pottery made when the city was occupied. At Yagul, some of the shards can be quite large, say 20cm square (except that pieces that big are usually curved). Michelle found a piece of worked flint at Yagul; I'm sorry I didn't take a picture. At most of the other sites, the pieces we found were mostly less than 3cm on a side, but they sometimes had traces of tool marks, ornamentation or the original colour. A large intact clay sculpture was found quite recently near the access road to Monte Alban. There is presumably lots more to be found on the mountain, but visitors are only allowed to wander a small fraction of the old city. Of course, all finds must be left at the site, so we didn't take away any souveniers.
My Monte Alban picasaweb album contains a small fraction of the photos we took there. I'll be more than happy to subject you to photos of nearly every visible carving in the Gran Plaza, some from several different angles, if you show the slightest bit of interest :-) Plus the obligatory photos of every pyramid and wide angle shots to put the buildings into context, of course.
Here are "drawings" made from a few of the shots, with commentary from a native guide (click for a larger version):
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