Monte Albán belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 500 BCE at Oaxaca, Mexico. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
Zapotec builders flattened a mountain top into a ceremonial city of pyramids, a ballcourt, and the Danzantes reliefs.
How it was made
A 200-metre plaza in the sky. Early glyphs and conquest slabs make it a capital of writing as well as stone.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
It is a wonder of site engineering: they did not find a plateau; they made one.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 500 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 98 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.