Teotihuacan Pyramids, Mexico

This year, I visited Mexico, mainly around Mexico City (CDMX), and was highly impressed. While I will share more in upcoming posts, I wanted to write about my favorite experience of them all—the pyramids at Teotihuacan.

The Teotihuacan archeological site is just outside the city, near the present-day town of San Juan Teotihuacan. This site displays the remains of a 2000-year-old culture that includes two giant pyramids—the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, a long promenade called the Avenue of the Dead, and several other temples of interest, including a temple of Quetzalcoatl.

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First Impressions

I was advised to go early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Hence, while still dark, I went to the Central North Bus Station and, from there, got a two-way ticket to the Pyramids. The bus dropped us at Gate-2 of the Pyramids, and right opposite that, the Pyramid of the Sun loomed at me from the East.

The peace at dawn was otherworldly. After buying the ticket at the gate and walking in, I realized I was the only one here, at the Avenue of the Dead, seeing this 2000-year-old city end-to-end, horizon-to-horizon. (Well, there were four dogs who followed me around quietly, but they were nice).

As I walked towards the Pyramid of the Sun, I saw a bright light coming up behind it straight at the center. This was it—the sacred moment for ancient kings and priests long forgotten, and I was able to experience it again, today in this year.

As the day went on, many small shopkeepers started gathering, and speaking to them, I found out they were selling Aztec whistles. These whistles, shaped like different animals, mimicked the sounds of each animal they were shaped as, through special mechanisms inside. I bought one shaped like a macaw, which when blown, made the sounds of a tropical bird. A jaguar-shaped one threw out a loud roar that spooked the other tourists who were trickling in. There was also the Aztec Death-Whistle that mimicked the screams of a dying human being.

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Teotihuacan History and Culture

Teotihuacan is NOT an Aztec site, and preceded their culture by a thousand years. In fact, by the time the Aztecs discovered this ancient city, it had already been deserted and forgotten from history. Teotihuacan was as mysterious to the Aztecs as the Aztecs are to us. In fact, even the names ‘Teotihuacan’, ‘Pyramid of the Sun’, ‘Pyramid of the Moon’ etc. are Aztec names from guesswork and not the real names of the sites. The original name, culture, and purpose of this city are lost to time.

However, the Aztec interpretations must be given some weight since their culture had similarities with Teotihuacan. In fact, today, we know that Teotihuacan was the mother civilization that influenced a vast number of Mesoamerican cultures around it, including the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Toltecs, the Olmecs, the Zapotecs, etc. These cultures had learned their Pyramid styles, their Gods, and their religious rituals from Teotihuacan. In other words, Teotihuacan was to the cultures of the Americas what the Roman Empire was to the cultures all over Europe.

This begs the question, how did this vast metropolitan city and a continental cultural superpower decline? For this, we have evidence of both internal human conflict, as well as an apocalyptic volcanic eruption nearby, which could have poisoned the water and soil permanently. And thus, this giant city was abandoned. Its inhabitants scattered across Mexico to form other smaller cultures. The record of this legendary city and its memories were lost, until centuries later, they were discovered by one of their cultural descendants – the Aztecs. The Aztecs not only identified this culture as their ancestors’ but also believed that this was where the Gods themselves lived – hence the name Teotihuacan, the City where the Gods Ascended. In fact, we have evidence that parts of the city were broken and brought back as relics and placed inside Aztec temples in Mexico City.

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Museum

The Teotihuacan site also had a great museum with a diorama of the whole city, many artifacts, and an excellent garden area with cacti, that reshapes how this valley was back then, before the volcanic eruptions destroyed it.

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Parting

On the return journey, I was able to take a picture of the city San Juan Teotihuacan. It had a small town-square and a few colorful streets, and this sign.

There are other more elevated experiences available – quite literally – since the pyramids can be viewed from the top from a hot-air balloon. Additionally, nearby there are restaurants like La Gruta, which are inside a cave-system, and offer indigenous foods on their menu. However, because I was tired, I returned early to the city. I learned more about prehispanic cultures in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, and new posts coming soon for that and more in Mexico City.