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⁋ On my last day in Oax - made a visit to the ruins of Monte Alban 1300 ft. above the town on the mountain of that name. This|mt. is situated in the midst of the val. with low country on|all sides & the summit is crowned with very extensive ruins built of rough stones & a soft mortar. One old entrance passage evidently once serving as the entrance to an [[strikethrough]] old passa [[/strikethrough]] interior chamber of a pyramid-like structure in the midst of a large enclosed court is roofed by means of a rude gothic arch made by standing up two rows of [[strikethrough]] slones [[/strikethrough]] flat stones on top of the laid up side walls & leaning them so that their tops meet over the middle of the passage way *[[image]]. From the appearance of these ruins I should judge them to have been a large fortress with temples & burial pyramids. No signs of any hieroglyphics were to be seen & only the rudest efforts were made toward dressing stone. most of the work was made up of rough stone. In one place some very large dressed stones are still to be seen evidently having formed part of an entrance way to a building. The vast amount of labor expended in the laying up of the great platforms of stone & mortar with their pyramidal superstructures is surprising & could only have been done by organized labor directed by some powerful chief. The layers of earthy mortar & stones vary much in thickness