Teotihuacán

Only 40 kilometers northeast of Mexico City is the spectacular site of Teotihuacán, the enormous ruins of the great city that was pre-Hispanic Mexico’s most important ancient metropolis. Its immense stone pyramids, temples, palaces, streets, and apartment complexes cover over 20 square kilometers and are best seen and enjoyed by walking through the huge, abandoned city. Either before or after a walking tour, make a stop at the Teotihuacán Museum, which highlights and displays the most recent excavation and research at the site.Because Teotihuacán is conveniently located near Mexico City, it is a favorite target for both tour groups arriving by bus, and individuals arriving by car. Therefore, the site usually swarms with tourists. We strongly recommend that you visit mid-week and get up at the crack of dawn in order to be waiting at the gates when they open first thing in the morning (double check, but when we were there the site opened at 8 am). If you do this, you probably will have several hours to enjoy the ruins in blissful solitude. Note: an alternate option for visiting the ruins is to spend the night at the Villa Arqueológica Teotihuacán, a simple but very pleasant hacienda-style hotel which is within easy walking distance of one of the main entrances, Gate 8. Begun about 100 B.C., the magnificent city reached the height of its importance around A.D. 500. It consisted of approximately 600 pyramids and stretched for 4 kilometers. At that time, with an estimated 200,000 inhabitants, it was the sixth-largest city in the world. Unlike in other ancient Mesoamerican cities, these Teotihuacán city dwellers lived in apartment compounds, some built and decorated with great luxury for the royalty and elite of the city, others (obviously tenements) constructed for the lower classes. These communal dwellings were laid out in barrios or blocks according to a well-thought-out city plan with streets, plazas, plumbing, and cisterns for collection of rainwater installed before the construction began. The massive stone pyramids of the sun and moon dominate the Avenue of the Dead (main roadway of the city), their awesome size replicating in cut stone the great mountain peaks of the city’s skyline. Their powerful architecture, based on the stepped pyramid style of construction, influenced the ceremonial architecture of almost all the cultures that followed. Cities and cultures as far away as the Maya region to the southeast, Tajin on the Gulf Coast, and Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca reflect contact with Teotihuacán. Much of this influence may have traveled along pre-Hispanic Mexico’s great trade routes which brought valuable raw materials such as jade, feathers, and cotton into the city’s workshops and carried finished products, including tools made of the local obsidian, to the hinterlands. However, strong new evidence now exists that indicates that Teotihuacán rulers were also powerful warriors and thus military conquest may also have been responsible for the spread of Teotihuacán influence into other regions of Mesoamerica. Walking through the site, one sees everywhere traces of the white stucco and painted fresco murals that once covered both the exterior and interior walls of the buildings with imagery of the gods and rituals. Some of these brightly colored frescos still survive and give us a glimpse of the brilliance of the city at its height. Around A.D. 600 Teotihuacán began to decline and in the early 700s it was sacked and burned. People gradually abandoned the ancient city but the memory of its power and glory and many of its massive buildings survived. Over the years, other empires arose and seats of power shifted in the valley. The Toltec empire flourished from about A.D. 1000 to 1250, its demise leaving a power vacuum, which was eventually filled by fierce Aztec warriors from the north. However, rulers and priests of these later city-states remained in awe of the massive ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacán. Over many centuries pilgrimages were made to the abandoned site and legend and memory continued to associate it with past glory. It remained as one of the most sacred places in the Aztec world where it was known as the place where the gods were born. The site of Tula, located about 70 kilometers north of Mexico City, was the legendary home of the Toltecs, who were credited by the cultures that succeeded them with being the greatest warriors and artists of ancient Mexico. Whether this was actually the case is uncertain. The site today is considerably smaller and less impressive than one might expect for such a powerful state. However, warrior themes and iconography depicting death, sacrifice, and war dominate the art that remains. The architecture with its step-style pyramids, stone sculptures, platforms, and temples, and a massive central plaza continue traditions established at the earlier site of Teotihuacán.