Cerro de la Campana

From the Suchilquitongo [1] town plaza, you can see the Cerro de la Campana cluster of hilltops above the northern horizon. The site is about a two-mile (three-km), 500-foot (150-meter) climb. If it’s hot, hire a taxi. If not, be sure to wear a hat, sturdy shoes, and take water. Atop the hill, you’ll find Tomb 5 (hopefully open to the public after years of restoration), a ball court, three courtyards, and three partly restored pyramids.

After you arrive atop the hill, look closely at the knolls in the immediate vicinity and you’ll see that they too are topped by pyramids, approximately 20 in all. Also, as you walk next to a road-cut section of hillside, look carefully and you’ll be able to spot and examine 1,500-year-old pottery shards.

Climb to the highest—the cross-topped—pyramid, and your reward will be a breezy view of the entire Etla Valley [2] and mountain panorama. Notice the dark Monte Albán [3] ridge, far to the southeast, to the right of distant Oaxaca City [4] (below the Cerro San Felipe massif on the left).

You can immediately see Cerro de la Campana’s advantages: direct signal-fire communication with its contemporary, Monte Albán [3]; a strong defensive position; and fertile riverbank fields. Why it was abandoned, like Monte Albán, around A.D. 800, remains a puzzle for future generations of archaeologists to decipher from the bones, stones, and mute, mysterious glyphs Cerro de la Campana’s builders have left behind.