As we approached the enormous Pyramid of the Sun, we stared in awe and wondered how early peasants would have felt as they approached the towering pyramid. After this awe-inspiring first impression, we knew our day exploring the pyramids of Teotihuacan would be unforgettable.
The historic city of Teotihuacan is located 50 km (30 miles) from Mexico City, at an elevation of 2,300 m (7,500 ft). It was built along the San Juan River rather than beside a lake like the other historic cities in the Valley of Mexico. This site was likely chosen because of the surrounding fertile lands and its access to fresh water. People have been living in the area of Teotihuacan since ancient times, but it wasn’t until the 1st century AD that it developed into a city. For the next several hundred years, the city grew and grew until it was the largest city in the Americas. At its height, between the years 300 and 600, the population was an estimated 175,000.
As you would expect for such a large city, it soon became an important centre for religion and ceremonial rites. In addition, its location close to obsidian mines made it a leader in making blades, arrow heads, axes and other tools from the stone. The obsidian was used by the large number of skilled artisans and craftsmen that lived in the city as well as being a key good for trade.
The people of Teotihuacan though did not keep written records. As a result, even though it was such a large and important civilization, not a lot is known about the people or the city. Even without knowing a lot of the details, you can still enjoy wandering through the ancient streets and be amazed by the pyramids, palaces and ceremonial plazas.
Pyramid of the Sun
The showstopper of Teotihuacan is the enormous Pyramid of the Sun. Built in 200 AD it was the largest building in pre-colonial Mesoamerica. It is so large in fact, that its base is as large as the Pyramid of Giza. Mayan pyramids are much taller, but its large base plus 65 m (210 ft) of height makes it one of the largest pyramids in the world.
The lower walls of the stone structure would have been decorated in friezes and painted with geometric shapes. The paint was made from minerals and semi-precious stones mixed with cactus slime. It’s too bad that those colours didn’t withstand the test of time.
The Teotihuacan people had fled the city hundreds of years before the Mexicas arrived in the 1400s. When they first saw the large pyramid, they thought it was built to worship the sun god and named it Pyramid of the Sun. Because the Teotihuacan people didn’t have a written language it is not fully known what the pyramid was used for, but it is believed that it was built to worship the god of rain, called Tlaloc in Náhuatl.
The Mexica were also the ones to name the city Teotihuacan. It means ‘Place where the gods were made’ or ‘City of the gods’, in Náhuatl. It’s not known what the city was called in the 1st century.
This large pyramid is solid but beneath it archeologists found a few tunnels and a cave. In the cave they found a statue of Huehueteotl, the Fire God as well as a child’s grave in each corner. These graves suggest that the children were scarified and offered to the gods. One theory is that the cave was the original temple and the pyramid was built over top.
Pyramid of the Moon
At 45 m (147 ft) high, the next tallest pyramid in Teotihuacan is Pyramid of the Moon. The structure we see today is the seventh layer of pyramids on this site. Between 100 and 450 AD, six new pyramids were built on top of the existing one. With each build, human and animal sacrificial offerings would have been made. Apparently it was built to mirror Cerro Gordo behind it.
At the top of the pyramid there was likely a temple dedicated to the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan; the Goddess of rebirth and fertility. Underneath the temple they found jade artefacts and obsidian blades.
In front of the pyramid is Plaza of the Moon. It includes twelve small, flat-topped pyramids that would have had temples on their tops. They surround a centre altar that was likely the site of ceremonial dances.
Note – you can no longer climb Pyramids of the Sun or Moon.
Avenue of the Dead
The main street in Teotihuacan is the ominous sounding Avenue of the Dead (Avenida de Los Muertos). It begins at Pyramid of the Moon and travels in a north south direction for almost 3 kilometers. It received its name because it was initially believed to have been bordered by tombs but in reality, the buildings were temples and palace residences.
The long street may have been used for processions to reach the ceremonial Pyramid of the Moon.
Along the sides of the avenue are many stone bases that would have had wooden buildings on top. Incredibly, on one of these stone buildings you can see a mural of a jaguar. Many of these buildings would have been painted and this mural is a great example of how the colourful the entire street may have looked at the time.
Palace of Quetzalpapalot
Not far from Pyramid of the Moon is Palace of Quetzalpapalot (Quetzal-Butterfly). The best feature in the palace is the courtyard in the back. Here you’ll find stone columns lining the edge of the courtyard. They aren’t ordinary columns though. They are ornamented with beautiful carvings.
It was initially believed that the carvings were of the mythical quetzal-butterfly, but are now believed to represent owls. Other depictions of owls have been found throughout the city. As well as the carvings, some of the walls are still bright with red paint.
A different style of pyramid architecture was used in Teotihuacan, called talud-tablero. This style of building was later found in other pre-colonial sites as far away as Tikal in Guatemala (You can read our post of Tikal here). It is one of the ways archaeologists were able to realize how far of a reach Teotihuacan had. You can see it in the first picture below where a sloped apron wall braces the vertical wall.
We also noticed another difference in the buildings’ designs. Smaller stones were placed in the mortar between larger stones. Many of the structures have been restored after suffering damage over the years. These small stones were used to identify the reconstructed walls. You can see this in the second picture below.
If you follow Avenue of the dead beyond these the large pyramids you’ll reach the prettiest building in the entire city. At the far end is the less visited Temple of the Feathered Serpent (250 AD).
We almost didn’t bother climbing to its top because we have climbed several different pyramids on our travels and the view from the top didn’t look very interesting. But, are we ever glad we did. We scaled over a pyramid that stands in front of Quetzalcoatl to see that it was hiding a great surprise.
The façade of the temple has several original reliefs that appear to be coming out from the pyramid walls. Heads of Feathered Serpents and a Tláloc-like deity cover the wall.
It used to be called Temple of Quetzalcoatl because the Feathered Serpent reliefs look very similar to the deity Quetzalcoatl seen in later civilizations. We found it interesting that this idol is also similar to Kukulcan, a Maya deity.
As well, the other character looks very similar to Mexica’s deity Tláloc, god of rain. That is what some researchers believe, but others say it may be a precursor to their Fire God, Xiuhcoatl or even the deity Cipactli. Whoever they represent it is a beautiful display of the skills held by sculptors of that time. These similarities are another indication of how far these Mesoamerican civilizations travelled and how much they interacted.
In the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City there is a re-creation of the temple wall. It must have been an incredible thing to see when it was still this colourful.
When the temple was excavated in the 1980s, they found over two hundred skeletons dressed as warriors. It is believed they were sacrificed as an offering when the temple was erected.
In the plaza in front of Temple of the Feathered Serpent was the citadel where rulers of the city likely lived. From there we could look down Avenue of the Dead to see both Pyramids of the Sun and Moon below Cerro Gordo.
It took centuries to build Teotihuacan and yet its demise was rather quick. A fire in the 7th century is believed to have destroyed most of the wooden buildings and as a result, any remaining residents fled to other parts of the Mesoamerica. Researchers are still unsure if the fire was the result of internal conflicts or invading forces.
Although very impressive, Teotihuacan feels a bit like visiting an impersonal large city with baren streets and towering buildings. It seemed to lack much character. It felt very unlike most of the Maya jungle ruins which are more like charming small towns; each with their own personality.
For more information on Maya sites, visit our posts about: Maya Ruins In Belize; El Tazumal, Joya De Cerén in El Salvador; Tikal & Yaxha in Guatemala; and Palenque, Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Tulum, in Mexico (Coming Soon).
Getting to Teotihuacan
If you have a car, it is an easy drive from Mexico City. To reach by public transit, make your way to Terminal de Norte. Inside is a kiosk selling tickets to the archeological site. ($68 MXN/$3.70 USD). Return tickets from the town of San Juan Teotihuacán were only $45 MXN ($2.45 USD).
There are also many tours offered from agencies in Mexico City. Some combine the ruins with a visit to Basilica of Guadalupe.
National Museum of Anthropology
One of the best museums we have visited in a long time is the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It is so large that you can not possibly visit it all in one day. The areas that interested us were Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan and Maya Empires.
Teotihuacan
One fact to remember as you look at these artefacts is that those crafted before 1000 AD, so all from Teotihuacan, were made before metal tools were developed in Mesoamerican. The majority of these stone artefacts were therefore sculpted with obsidian blades. Here are some of our favourite pieces from this museum as well as the one on-site at Teotihuacan Archeological Site.
Disk of Death (Complejo Muerte Disk of Mictlāntēcutli) – Found in front of Pyramid of the Sun, this magnificent piece is made of basalt stone and depicts Mictlāntēcutli, god of death.
Huehueteotl – A statue of this deity was found in a pit under the Pyramid of the Sun. This statue of Fire God Huehueteotl is also a brazier that would have been used in rituals.
Goddess of Teotihuacan – This sculpture was found in front of Pyramid of the Moon. It is very similar to the Mexica goddess Chalchiuitlicue, wife of Tlaloc.
Clay figurines, pottery and braziers – There was a large variety of artefacts found throughout the city such as; doll-like figurines with moveable limbs; decorative ceremonial vessels; masks; as well as painted bowls and vases.
Tenochititlan
These artifacts were found in Tenochititlan, now Mexico City.
Piedra del Sol – The Sun Stone was found in Templo Mayor, Tenochititlan. It was called the Aztec Calendar for years, but now is believed to have been a sacrificial altar. At 3.6 m (11.8 ft) in diameter, it is an impressive artifact.
We saw quite a few sacrificial stones that were found in Tenochititlan. Each one is skillfully decorated with artistic carvings.
Cihuateteo or “Divine Women” – These skull images represented the spirits of women who died in childbirth.
Maya
Chaac – When we show you Maya sites in southern Mexico, you will see many icons of Chaac, Rain God.
Chac-Mool – Another common Maya figure is Chac-Mool, used during sacrificial offerings.
Ball Game Rings – The Ball Game is common among many Mesoamerican cultures. The museum has a collection of stone rings used in the game from a variety of sites around the country.
San Juan Teotihuacán
After the archeological site we explored the central square in San Juan Teotihuacán, a Pueblo Magico. Its colourfully painted city hall and central plaza make it a nice stop for dinner or drinks after exploring the archeological site. The small town is not worth a special trip though.
Tip – There are hundreds of Pueblo Magicos in Mexico. It’s a marketing term to generate tourism in the towns. Some of them earn this name, but others fall quite short. Don’t assume because it’s a Pueblo Magico that you will find it magical.
To read more of our adventures in Mexico, click here.
Coming Next – A Day In Puebla, Mexico
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