DAY 6 SEP 28, TUESDAY

Teotihuacan

The largest Pre-Columbian site so far excavated in Mesoamerica, Teotihuacán (Náhuatl for "the place where man becomes God" 'city of gods') lies 50 kilometers north of Mexico City and makes for an excellent day trip.

Teotihuacan [tuoti wakan] [teotiwa'kan] (listen); 9am-3pm[COVID RESTRICTIONS: 3000 PEOPLE /day, 700, 700, ]

It's the most visited archeological site in Mexico, receiving 4,185,017 visitors in 2017. On Sundays, Teotihuacan offers free entrance to Mexican citizens and residents. Therefore the site is almost guaranteed to be crowded on those days. If you are able, you might want to visit Teotihuacan on a weekday to avoid lineups.

LOGISTICS

We ubered to our metro station Polanco at 7.15 am, went to the end of the line El Rosario [ red line 6] and then got on Red and yellow linea 5 and got out at Instituto Petroleo. It was a minute walk to to Norte terminal [Autobuses del Norte].

When you arrive at the north terminal, walk all the way to the left . The second ticket counter from the far left end is the one. It has 'Teotihuacan'“LOS PIRAMIDES.” sign above the counter. The buses go approx every 20/30 mins.

We bought tickets for Pirámides not one marked Teotihuacán, since the latter will only take you to the village of San Juan Teotihuacán, which is several km away from the site. Be sure to check at the bus terminal. The trip costs 106 pesos for a return ticket per person

They'll tell where to go, in Spanish of course. It was Gate 8 for us. When we go to #8 (which is basically directly behind the ticket counter) , we see some other people forming a line there. We confirmed with them. Some guy came by and checked our tickets before bus arrived. Confirmed from the driver also 'piramides' to make sure we are on the right bus.

All this took just a few minutes, no waiting.

Soon we were on a comfy bus riding to Teotihuacan.

THE PYRAMIDS USED TO OPEN BY 8AM and close by 5. now after COVID reopening, timings are 9-3. Also they don't allow climbing the pyramids and the Temple .

Everybody online has written about how hot it is, with no shade. Also the altitude also takes its toll. We took umbrellas, sun screen, sun glasses, lots of water and our own packed lunch.

There are 3 entrances and i had read conflicting advice on where to enter. Some said, enter by Puerta 1 and leave by Puerta 3. The advantage of leaving by Puerta 3 is that you can see the murals in the Temple of the Plumed Shells on the way out. But the bus does stop at all three gates. Did not know what procedures were in place after covid reopening. The bus stopped at a couple places, there was even a busker who boarded and sang pitchy stuff and son tipped him handsomely as he was so sorry for him.

At 9.50am the bus stopped and driver announced'los piramides' we got down with a few others. Forgot all about what gate it was. It was gate 1. We bought the entry tickets and entered. Vendors said, go to the citadel and then onward to the avenue. We marched on.

On the edge of the high-lying valley of Anáhuac and dating from around AD 600, this once-influential political, religious, and cultural center — now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — was reduced to ruins long before the arrival of the Spanish. There's much to see, from the museum with its displays [closed now]and large model of the site to the four-kilometer-long Street of the Dead (Calle de los Muertos).

Other highlights include the Moon Pyramid; the Citadel (Ciudadela); and the Temple of Quetzalcóatl, a large pyramid distinguished by its 366 sculptures, a rarity in a city in which very few stone sculptures have been found.

Also of interest is a rather chilling burial chamber with the skeletons of 18 priests murdered during a ritual sacrifice around AD 150.

HISTORY

Teotihuacan began as a religious center in the Mexican Highlands around the first century AD. It became the largest and most populated center in the pre-Columbian Americas. Teotihuacan was home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate the large population

The earliest buildings at Teotihuacan date to about 200 BCE. The largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by 100 CE. A style particularly associated with Teotihuacan is known as talud-tablero, in which an inwards-sloping external side of a structure (talud) is surmounted by a rectangular panel (tablero). Variants of the generic style are found in a number of Maya region sites

The city was a center of industry, home to many potters, jewelers, and craftsmen.

The city's urban-ceremonial space is considered one of the most impressive achievements of the pre-Columbian New world. The size and quality of the monuments, the originality of the residential architecture and the miraculous iconography in the colored murals of the buildings or the vases with the paintings of butterflies, eagles, coyotes with feathers and jaguars, suggest beyond of any doubt a high-level civilization, whose cultural influences were spread and transplanted into all the Mesoamerican populations.

WHAT IT USED TO LOOK LIKE/ CITY PLAN

The city of Teotihuacan was characterized by large and imposing buildings, which included, apart from the complexes of houses, temples, large squares, stadiums and palaces of the rulers, nobles and priests.

The main monuments of the city of Teotihuacan are connected to each other by a central road of 45 meters wide and a length of 2 kilometers, called "Avenue of the Dead " (Avenida de los Muertos), because it is believed to have been paved with tombs.

The Avenue of the Dead is roughly 40 meters wide and 4 km long.

East is the imposing "Pyramid of the Sun " (Piramide del Sol), the third largest pyramid in the world. It has a volume of 1 million cubic meters. It is a gradual pyramid, with a base dimensions of 219.4 x 231.6 meters and a height of 65 meters [720 x 780 x 120 ft]. At the top of the pyramid there was a huge pedestal, where human sacrifices were made.

[HUMAN SACRIFICES

Teotihuacanos practiced human sacrifice: human bodies and animal sacrifices have been found during excavations of the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Scholars believe that the people offered human sacrifices as part of a dedication when buildings were expanded or constructed. The victims were probably enemy warriors captured in battle and brought to the city for ritual sacrifice to ensure the city could prosper.[58] Some men were decapitated, some had their hearts removed, others were killed by being hit several times over the head, and some were buried alive. Animals that were considered sacred and represented mythical powers and military were also buried alive, imprisoned in cages: cougars, a wolf, eagles, a falcon, an owl, and even venomous snakes]

At the north end of the city, the Boulevard of the dead ends in the "Pyramid of the Moon "(Piramide de la Luna), surrounded laterally by platforms-ramps and lower pyramids.

In the southern part is the "Temple of Cetzalkokal " (Quetzalcoatl), dedicated to God in the form of a winged serpent, which gives life and fertility. Sculpture representation of the God Ketzalkokal and twelve Heads of winged snakes adorn the two sides of the uphill scale of the temple.

Further down the Avenue of the Dead, after a small river, is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city. The name "Citadel" was given to it by the Spanish, who believed it was a fort.

WHERE WE ENTERED

We entered through the Gate 1, headed to the Citadel.

It was basically squares of ruins, we had to climb up steep steps and then climb down, cross a patch and repeat the same. It became tiring and pointless. A Guide was standing in one of the patches and explaining the history to her gang. I just wanted to get on to the central avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead".

So we turned back and hit up the avenue.

The city's broad central avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead" (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccoatli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (third largest in the World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula and the Great Pyramid of Giza).

We reached the Pyramid of the Sun. Left side view of the Pyramid of the Sun here

Front view of the Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon and The Ciudadela with Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl are placed at both ends of the Avenue while Palace-museum Quetzalpapálot, the fourth basic structure of site, is situated between two main pyramids.

This is the Pyramid of the Moon

This is the Puma mural

Along the Avenue are many smaller talud-tablero platforms as well. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the name of the avenue. Scholars have now established that these were ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples.

ACOUSTIC WONDER

Can hear bird chirp when we clap here... great acoustic trick

clapping creates bird sounds. Guides were doing it, we also tried and were amazed at the acoustics. Vendors had whistles producing sounds and they were creating a ruckus.

We sat here for a while, there were stray dogs, aggressively pouncing on us for food. We fended them off. We were thankful for our umbrellas, it had been pretty hot

Below is the pic where we are clapping

Walked back along the Avenue of the Dead

This is the Sun pyramid again. Turn perpendicular here to reach Gate 2

Way to Gate 2

SOME UNIQUE FEATURES TO PONDER

The urban layout of Teotihuacan exhibits two slightly different orientations, which resulted from both astronomical and topographic criteria.

The central part of the city, including the Avenue of the Dead, conforms to the orientation of the Sun Pyramid, while the southern part reproduces the orientation of the Ciudadela. The two constructions recorded sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar. The orientation of the Sun Pyramid was intended to record “the sunrises on February 11 and October 29 and sunsets on April 30 and August 13. The interval from February 11 and October 29, as well as from August 13 to April 30, is exactly 260 days”.The recorded intervals are multiples of 13 and 20 days, which were elementary periods of the Mesoamerican calendar. Furthermore, the Sun Pyramid is aligned to Cerro Gordo to the north, which means that it was purposefully built on a spot where a structure with a rectangular ground plan could satisfy both topographic and astronomical requirements. The artificial cave under the pyramid additionally attests to the importance of this spot.

The course of the San Juan River, which was modified to bend around the structures as it goes through the center of town eventually to return to its natural course outside of Teotihuacan.

TUNNEL

In late 2003 a tunnel beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent was accidentally discovered by archeologists

The underground passage runs under Feathered Serpent Temple, and the entrance is located a few meters away from the temple at the expected place, deliberately sealed with large boulders nearly 2,000 years ago. The hole that had appeared during the 2003 storms was not the actual entrance; a vertical shaft of almost 5 meters by side is the access to the tunnel. At 14 meters deep, the entrance leads to a nearly 100-meter long corridor that ends in a series of underground galleries in the rock.

Nearly 1,000 tons of soil and debris were removed from the tunnel. There were large spiral seashells, cat bones, pottery, fragments of human skin. The rich array of objects unearthed included: wooden masks covered with inlaid rock jade and quartz, elaborate necklaces, rings, greenstone crocodile teeth and human figurines, crystals shaped into eyes, beetle wings arranged in a box, sculptures of jaguars, and hundreds of metallized spheres. The mysterious globes lay in both the north and south chambers. Ranging from 40 to 130 millimeters, the balls have a core of clay and are covered with a yellow jarosite formed by the oxidation of pyrite.

One of the most remarkable findings in the tunnel chambers was a miniature mountainous landscape, 17 meters underground, with tiny pools of liquid mercury representing lakes. The walls and ceiling of the tunnel were found to have been carefully impregnated with mineral powder composed of magnetite, pyrite (fool's gold), and hematite to provide a glittering brightness to the complex, and to create the effect of standing under the stars as a peculiar re-creation of the underworld.

At the end of the passage, Gómez Chávez’s team uncovered four greenstone statues, wearing garments and beads; their open eyes would have shone with precious minerals. Two of the figurines were still in their original positions, leaning back and appearing to contemplate up at the axis where the three planes of the universe meet – likely the founding shamans ofTeotihuacan, guiding pilgrims to the sanctuary, and carrying bundles of sacred objects used to perform rituals, including pendants and pyrite mirrors, which were perceived as portals to other realms.

A recent discovery of a 1800-year-old bouquets of flowers was made in 2021. The flowers, which were found in the tunnel beneath a pyramid dedicated to the feathered serpent deity Quetzalcóatl, date to between roughly 1 and 200 C.E

RETURN TO CDMX

It was 2 pm, we talked to vendors and understood the bus comes on the road we were standing outside Gate 2. A roadside cafe lady confirmed. There were no signs of bus stop but we waited for 5 minutes or so. We signaled a bus that came by to stop. Asked if it was going to Ciudad de Mexico. Driver nodded. We showed him our return ticket and got in.

We reached the North terminal in Mexico city in 1 1/2 hours. Walked to the metro station and traveled one station to transfer at Instituto Petroleo [Red linea 6] to La villa basilica for Basilica Guadalupe. Just 2 metro stations.

Walked to the Basilica in 5 minutes.