Teotihuacan Ruins

12 March, 2009

We stayed in a little village about 30 miles NW of Mexico City. The town is San Juan Teotihuacan. Adjacent to the town is a huge archaeological site that protects and researches the mid-classical city of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was once a planned city home to well over 100,000 people (possibly a quarter million), making it -at its time one of the biggest cities in the world. The site covers 83 square kilometers in size.

The fall of Teotihuacan came some 500 years before the arrival of the Spanish. Already picked over, the site was left pretty much alone by the Conquistadors. Because of this the site reveals many artifacts that other sites have lost.

In spite of the rich resources at the site, the details of who occupied the site and just what influence and control they brought to Mesoamerica is lost in antiquity. Cultural exchange can be seen between surrounding cultures and here at Teotihuacan, but the exact roles these cultures played in each others' lives is lost.

We visited the museum first where we discovered just how huge the site is. A model showed us that the main street (dubbed “Street of the Dead” by Aztecs who believed the smaller structures to be tombs) is many miles long! As a result, we found ourselves walking from structure to structure with little time to contemplate them individually.

Three structures stand out, however. The Pyramid of the Sun, The Pyramid of the Moon, and the Hall of the Jaguars are really treasures. Each for different reasons.

Pyramid of the Sun is the largest of the structures. It is the second largest structure in the new world, second only to the great pyramid in Cholula.

Pyramid of the moon, while smaller holds a more prominent position in the city. It sits squarely at the end of the long Street of the Dead where it dominates the street, the landscape and the symmetrical architecture on both sides.


Hall of the Jaguars is impressive because of the extremely fresh stone carving on pillars and panels. The surviving sections of ceiling and interior walls still have crisp plaster finishes with many murals intact. A stone floor still retains its shine.

Again, we lament that our moments here are too, too brief. We left late in the afternoon, wishing it was still morning.