Monte Alban was at one time home to 50,000 Zapotec people. The builders of Monte Alban artificially levelled the top of the mountain, which overshadows the three surrounding valleys of Oaxaca. The site emerged as a political centre in around 400 BC, and later developed as an important cultural centre between 500 BC to AD 700. The site was abandoned by the Zapotecs when they began to lose political power, which resulted in conflict between them and the Mixtecs, who moved into the Valley and used it as a burial ground. It was later invaded by the Aztecs and then by the Spanish who gave the site the name Monte Alban, meaning White Mountain, due to the white flowering trees that grow in the area.