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Published: June 24th 2023
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Teotihuacan is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, 25 miles northeast of Mexico City. It is the most visited archeological site in Mexico, and the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas, namely the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. At its zenith in the first half of the first millennium, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Americas, considered as the first advanced civilization on the North American continent, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at least the sixth-largest city in the world during its epoch. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BCE and to have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE, but after its decline, attributed to environmental changes and a subsequent severe cutback in food production, its major monuments were sacked and burned around 550 CE.
At its height Teotihuacan prospered from its monopoly on obsidian, used in the manufacture of weapons, and from trade in its orange-hued ceramics, as well as from its strategic location at the center of Mesoamerica, which enabled it to control
important trade routes and helped it forge important political alliances with faraway places. At the time of its greatest splendor its walls were polished with stucco and decorated with paint or carved stones with representations of deities such as Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue. The enormous monolith of Chlachiuhtilicue, goddess of calm waters, in the National Museum of Anthropology, was found at the foot of the Pyramid of the Moon; our museum guide marked this as the centerpiece of the collection, followed by the amazing Aztec sunstone.
The Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon are amazing, but there is also the Temple of Quetzacoatl at the other end of the complex which should not be missed, as well as the Museum of Teotihuacan Painting (aka the Beatriz de la Fuente Mural Museum) and the Museum of Teotihuacan Culture. Teotihuacan is expansive and edifying and it's worth your time to explore it on foot, either with a detailed guidebook or with a local guide, available in the morning just outside the entrance gates.
This is a full day trip from Mexico City. There is little shade so plan accordingly. You want to arrive just when it opens and, if
possible, avoid going on the weekend. Public transit is available but it's a little slow, and possibly unsafe, so we opted for private transportation. You can request an Uber to drop you here from Mexico City and you will find another to take you back; no need to pay them to wait. I would have considered taking a tour but nothing was available that just visited Teotihuacan; indeed, we arrived before the tour buses and then watched them drive away for an early lunch and shopping after what couldn't have been more than two hours at the site. Take your time and enjoy yourself - who knows when you'll be back.
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