Teotihuacan, birthplace of the gods

Teotihuacan is the most misterious civilisation in Central America. When you visit its ruins, you don’t need to be an archaeologist to understand the high level of development and sophistication it attained. There are also many beautiful ceramic, gold and stone objects from Teotihuacan in faraway regions.

However, they haven’t left us anything written – in stone nor in paper. Their neighbours (especially the Mayas) wrote a lot about them, though, and this has allowed us to remake their history. Teotihuacan had a special relationship with the Maya world, over 1000 km away: cultural exchange, a thriving trade and political alliances.

Despite all the recent advances in the interpretation of these Maya texts and archaeology, there are still many unanswered questions.

In fact, we don’t even know who the people of Teotihuacan were – where did they come from and where did they leave when their metropolis collapsed, what kind of language they spoke or how they called themselves.

Teotihuacan is the name the Aztecs gave this city, which means “birthplace of the gods” in nahuatl. The Mayas called if Puh, and this Maya gliph can be found in the monuments of many ancient cities. Teotihuacan actually had some kind of suzerainty over some very important Maya cities like Tikal (in present-day Guatemala).

Teotihuacan was to Mesoamerica something like Rome was to Europe. The centre of its world and a model for many cities and peoples even centuries after it was abandoned.

The Aztecs believed that the gods created the fifth sun, the era in which we live, in Teotihuacan. This fifth sun would’ve followed the four failed suns, destroyed by the gods.

The construction of Teotihuacan started on the 1st c. BC, on a lake that has long disappeared. Its golden age began on the 2nd c. AD. In its climax, it had a population between 100.000 and 200.000, including a significant percentage of foreigners. Other Central American cities also had Teotihuacan neighbourhoods.

The decline of Teotihuacan begins around 650 and it was finally abandoned in the 8th c. However, it maintained a status as a very important religious centre and even small groups of people settled here again. Experts still don’t know why Teotihuacan was abandoned – internal conflicts, ecological collapse, foreign invasions… or a combination of all?

What is certain is that Teotihuacan continued being admired and its architecture influenced many cities in Mesoamerica – the talud-tablero (slope-and-panel) style originated in Teotihuacan and expanded throughout Central America (as you can see in Monte Albán or Chichen Itza). Now it is the most representative Mesoamerican style for the layman.

How to arrive in the archaeological site of Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan lies 50 km Northeast of Mexico City, by road 132D.

There are buses that take you directly to the archaeological site of Teotihuacan from Autobuses del Norte bus station in Mexico City. Other buses go to the nearby village San Juan Teotihuacán.

You can easily reach Autobuses del Norte by metro (line 5). It will take you around 2 hours to get to Teotihuacan from Mexico City centre by public transporte.

In the official travel recommendations of many Western countries and internet forums you may read that there are frequent assaults to buses from Mexico City to Teotihuacan. It seems that the situation has improved in the last years, but the risk still exists.

This is why we decided to make an exception and visit Teotihuacan with a guided tour. We regretted it and pledge not to visit any other archaeological site in Mexico like this.

Guided tours to Teotihuacan

There are many guided tours to Teotihuacan. Usually, they include a visit to the Sanctuary of Guadalupe in Mexico City and even to Plaza de las Tres Culturas, site of the ruins of Tlatelolco (“sister city” of Tenochtitlan, on the North). You can book them in Mexico City or online in webs like viator.com, where you will be able to check opinions before deciding.

The downside is we couldn’t find any tour that doesn’t include a couple of hours of extra activities that have nothing to do with Teotihuacan, its history and archaeology: tequila tasting, some kind of traditional art show, a visit to some shop… a way of pushing you to buy things you didn’t know you needed.

What is worse is that these activities waste your time. What you wanted to visit is Teotihuacan and finally you are there just for 1h30 or so…

In our case, what was worse is that our guide didn’t even have the knowledge of history and archaeology to be a real guide to Teotihuacan. At least, we felt safe and didn’t fear assaults.

So learn from our mistake and if you decide to visit Teotihuacan with a guided tour, make sure that you will spend enough time there – 3 hours would be good, but at least 2 hours.

What we can visit today in the archaological site of Teotihuacan is its ceremonial centre and administrative palaces, along the Street of the Dead, a 2 km long monumental avenue.

Imagine a large city around this centre, with quarters specialised by trades, some mostly inhabited by what today we would call people from other nationalities.

We are very happy that we could visit Teotihuacan even during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the visit couldn’t be complete in this situation, as all palaces, “The Citadel” and the site museum were closed to the public. Climbing up the pyramids was not allowed, neither, and it’s possible that it will never be again.

There are two main entrances to the archaeological site. One is on the southern area, which takes you directly to the museum and the Citadel. Once you visit the citadel, you can walk all the Street of the Dead up to the Pyramid of the Moon and finally the palaces of Quetzalpapalotl and the Jaguars before leaving the site from the North.

The Citadel

The Citadel is one of the most impressive monumental ensembles of Teotihuacan. Its name was given by mistake by the Spaniards, because it was not really a citadel.

Its structure is a square of approximately 400 x 400 metres, made up by 4 platforms with small pyramids of their sides.

The main building – and the most beautiful – in the Citadel is the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent), that stands on top of another platform. This temple has a typical slope-and-panel pyramid shape and the most intricate decoration of all Teotihuacan.

The panels of the pyramid display alternatively heads of feathered serpent and Tlaloc (god of the rain). Feathered serpents run along the friezes. Its staircase is also flanked by feathered serpent heads, of another style.

There is a replica in colour of a wall of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in the National Museum of Anthropology, a must in Mexico City.

Street of the Dead

The Mexicas (Aztecs) called this monumental avenue that structures the ceremonial centre the Street of the Dead (Miccaotli). This name was inspired by the tombs of rulers and priests on both sides of the avenue.

The Street of the Dead is around 2 km long – from the Citadel to the Pyramid of the Moon – and an average width of approximately 45 metres. There is a slope of 27 metres between the Citadel and the Pyramid of the Moon. The Street of the Dead handles it with large platforms with stairs and buildings on the sides.

The street runs across the river that is now called San Juan. Just after that there is a group of buildings known as underground buildings. These date from different development stages, and the more modern were built on top of the older ones.

Close to the Pyramid of the Sun, on your way to the Pyramid of the Moon you can find this fresco painting that represents a jaguar.

Pyramid of the Sun

Rising over 63 metres from the platform, the Pyramid of the Sun is the second tallest building in Mesoamerica, after the Great Pyramid of Cholula. Originally, there was a temple on top of this structure (of which few remains), so the total height was around 75 metres.

The base of the pyramid is nearly square, 225 by 222 metres, and stands on a 350-metre long terrace. What we see today is partly the result of a controversial reconstruction in 1905-1910 (coinciding with the centenary of the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence).

Like everywhere in Teotihuacan, we don’t know the pyramid’s original name. The Aztecs called it the Pyramid of the Sun, probably because its façade is aligned with sunrise on 11th February and 29th October. Interestingly, there is an interval of 260 days between both dates – 260 is the number of days in the sacred mesoamerican calendar (Aztec tonalpohualli or Maya tzolk’in).

The Pyramid of the Sun was built as a large earthen mound covered with blocks of local volcanic stone. Originally, all the pyramid was coated with stucco and painted. The monumental staircase had 260 stairs (22 have been lost).

There is a tunnel below the pyramid. When it was first discovered, archaeologists thought that it was a natural lava tube, but now we know it arrives in a flower-shaped chamber of four petals, with a gate on each of them.

Archaeologists are studying new tunnels that have been discovered in recent years. Many offerings to the gods have been found in these, which will probably improve our knowledge about Teotihuacan.

Pyramid of the Moon

The Street of the Dead arrives in a great square, 207 by 135 metres long, where the Pyramid of the Moon stands. On its perimeter small pyramids are arranged symmetrically, creating a sense of harmony and grandeur.

The Pyramid of the Moon is located on the Northern side of the square, closing the Street of the Dead, and in front of a hill known as Cerro Gordo.

The Pyramid of the Moon is really impressive, although it is not as large as the Pyramid of the Sun: it’s 45 metres tall and 150 by 140 metres on its base. Due to the terrain slope, it looks nearly as tall as the Pyramid of the Sun.

Construction of the Pyramid of the Moon started around year 100 and it was enlarged six times until circa 450. In each of these enlargements, a new structure was built on top of the previous, so the final result was similar to the layers of an onion. This design is very typical in Mesoamerica.

A great platform of 5 slope-and-panel stages with a monumental staircase was added on the main side of the pyramid. It is thought that it was used in ceremonies dedicated to the goddess of the Moon.

It must have been really breathtaking seeing the rules and priests of Teotihuacan celebrating rituals on this huge pyramids, then topped with temples and painted with bright colours.

Recent archaeological findings included some offerings containing human bodies as well as animals (a wolf, a puma, a jaguar and a snake), as well as many objects made of obsidian and other stones.

Palace of Quetzalpapalotl

On the south-western corner of the Pyramid of the Moon Square lies the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl (“quetzal-butterfly”), which was damaged by a fire.

Its walls are decorated with beautiful frescoes and dry-frescoes, in which the main colour is the typical red from Teotihuacan. There are also columns with carved figures. The feathered serpent head at the end of the staircase is the largest found in Teotihuacan.

After its discovery in the 1960s, the authorities decided to rebuild it partially based on archaeological evidence, to show how an administrative building for the government or the high priesthood would have been.

Next to this palace is the Palace of Jaguars, thus called because of its murals representing jaguars playing a musical instrument. From this palace you can access the Temple of Feathered Snails with beautiful carvings. Unfortunately, it was closed to visitors during our trip.

Teotihuacan was our first large archaeological site in Mexico (we had already visited the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan). Teotihuacan is certainly a place you cannot miss if you visit Mexico City – both because it is a really breathtaking place and because of its great importance for all ancient Central America.

In Mexico City, you should also visit the National Museum of Anthropology. One of its eleven archaeology is fully dedicated to Teotihuacan. There, you will see the typical orange pottery of Teotihuacan, reproductions of some buildings and mural paintings and a lot more. And explanations are much better than in Teotihuacan itself, so you can learn a lot.

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