Jennifer Bowers, age 15, of Gulfport, Miss., for her question:

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT MONTE ALBAN?

Monte Alban is a ruined center of the Zapotec civilization of Mexico that is located on a high spur overlooking the Oaxaca Valley about seven miles from Oaxaca, south of Mexico City. Monte Alban flourished for a thousand years, from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 500, when it may have had a population of about 25,000.

On an artificially flattened hilltop site that is 55 acres in area there was a central plaza with two major platforms to the north and south, surrounded by numerous terraces and palaces. There also are some pyramids, temples, underground passages, an observatory and a ball court.

One early Monte Alban building, the Temple of Danzantes, contains bas relief figures long believed to depict dancers, although some now think they may in fact represent victims of human sacrifice.

Vaulted and frescoed tombs, some of them among the most elaborate in the Western hemisphere, indicate the power and wealth of the Gapotec culture.

Monte Alban declined for unknown reasons. Mixtecs later used the site for burials. By the time of the Spanish conquest Monte Alban, has been all but abandoned.