Mont Alban and city tour

Off to the ruins meaning 'white mountain' because the pyramid is covered with trees that have white blossoms in the spring. This ruin is high on the hill with a beautiful domed church on top. As the Spanish conquered the natives, they tore down the native pyramids/cities and erected churches to convert the people to have them under the Spanish control. Everywhere you look, there are mounds under vegetation that are uncovered ruins. This site has partially excavated ruins in many spots to show the different types of structures. Not enough money to do the whole thing. In fact, the whole city of Oaxaca is built on top of the old ones. Mexico has approximately 10,000 ruins and only about 900 have had some excavations done. The archaeologists burrowed a 1200' tunnel under this with an example of the construction of the building. Very interesting.
Next we went to the Temple of Santo Domingo, a church that had to to seen to be believed. Every single inch is covered is gold and painted decorations. The ceiling is breathtaking. There are thousands of faces, each one different, representing the people that have done the decorations since the 1600's. Outside the church was the old main town square from the 1500's. To my shock, cemented in the stone blocks covering the ground, were hundreds of cast iron rings, which used to be used for the slave trade at that time. Today, vendors use these to tie down their tarps covering their wares.
Back at the campsite, we walked up to the town plaza, very beautiful with red and fuchsia azaleas, bougainvillea and purple jacarinda trees, to the local church. In front of it , is the famous Tule tree, here on the left, for which the town is named, which is over 2000 years old and gigantic. It is 140' high, has a diameter of 138' and is larger than the church.