How a Heathen Gringo Dared to Tread in the Place of the Gods...
Written: Jun 11 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, Avenue of the Dead, LOTS MORE!
Cons: Lots of walking under a fierce hot sun...
The Bottom Line: Teotihuacan is a place where history and art and anthropology and archaeology all come together in a fascinating mileau of wonder. See it!
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Teotihuacan |
Who the heck were the people who built this place? That's what I'm wondering (and a lot of other folks wonder too) as I walk around the ruins of Teotihuacan --- the largest and most fascinating archaelogical site in Mexico's central valley. The first time I visited Teotihuacan, several years ago, I had assumed it was probably an Aztec city. Nope. It's not Toltec either. Probably not Olmec either, for that matter. So who do we credit for this stunning place?
The names of all the landmarks are actually their names in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, who were reportedly stunned by the grandeur of the abandoned city when they first discovered it a mere century or so before the Spanish conquest. In fact, the name Teotihuacan means "place of the Gods", which is how the Aztec regarded the magnificent city.
While some of the ruined cities of ancient Mexico are fairly well understood and documented, Teotihuacan isn't one of them. Archaelogists have explored the place almost continuously over the past century, but there are still so many unanswered questions about the place --- fundamental questions too --- that there remains job security for countless future generations of young (and old) Indiana Jones types.
In fact, it was only a couple years ago that I read an article in Archaelogy magazine about a team that had unearthed a previously undiscovered tomb in the Pyramid of the Moon. Criminey! If the scholars are still digging up major finds in one of the most obvious buildings on the site, what might be hidden in the less explored corners? One can only imagine...
So anyway, lots of terrain here to cover, lots of digging still to be done, and lots of unexplained questions.
What the scholars can agree on is that the place is old --- probably settled around 500 to 200 years before the birth of Christ, with most of the city having been built by about 200 A.D. It's assumed that the people who built Teotihuacan were not part of another civilization, and these days, archaelogists seem content to refer to Teotihuacans as their own civilization, masters of their own domain and their own destiny, and a civilization that prospered in the valley for almost a thousand years before it would be wiped out by some, now unknown, catacylismic event --- probably a war --- that killed off everyone and left much of the city on fire. All this happened some 7 centuries before the Aztecs would found Tenochtitlan...
Visiting Teotihuacan today is a humbling experience. Not only is the place one of the largest pre-Columbian cities in the American hemisphere, it's also one of the oldest, and it's one that a curious tourist could spend days exploring because the archaelogical site itself is enormous.
Wandering Through Another World...
There's hundreds of buildings at Teotihuacan that you could check out and wander around and climb over. You could find dozens of temples. Dozens of burial mounds. Dozens of plazas. But I think most folks who've visited the site would agree that there are three biggees you absolutely don't want to miss! These are: The Pyramid of the Sun, The Pyramid of the Moon, and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.
I highly recommend focusing on these three, but keep in mind that they're not close together --- it's at least a couple mile walk along the Avenue of the Dead between the two major pyramids, and another good 2 to 3 miles from the Pyramid of the Sun to the Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Visiting Teotihuacan is a great way to get a serious workout!
The Pyramid of the Sun is the single most impressive thing at Teotihuacan. It's said to be the third largest pyramid in the world, but it can be deceptive when you first see it, because it has a low, squat appearance, rather than a high, symmetrical peak. Comparing this pyramid to the look of a classic Egyptian pyramid, or even a tall pyramid like those in the Mayan city of Coba, and the difference is like comparing the physiques of a basketball player to a sumo wrestler. The difference could be because scholars believe the upper portion of this pyramid was destroyed at some point before the first milenium.
The Pyramid of the Sun is definitely the big boy of Teotihuacan though, and it's fun (but a lot of work) to climb up to the top. Fortunately, the Teotihuacans were thoughtful architects and built several wide plaza areas in tiers along the way up, so there are some natural resting places to take a load off, snap a few pictures, then work up the strength and will power to huff and puff up to the next level. It's not always that the tiers are so high, as it is that the stone steps themselves are hugely high and fairly narrow --- it's easily 2 feet or more up some of these "steps".
The view from the top is worth the climb. Once up at the top, you can't help but gaze across the ruins for miles around in every direction and wonder what the city must have been like when it was bustling with a hundred thousand natives going about their daily routine. And while I mentioned only 2 pyramids as being "must see", you might wonder about all the others, since there are dozens of smaller pyramids around the city, but especially along the wide Avenue of the Dead, as it leads toward the Pyramid of the Moon...
Urban planning is sometimes thought of as a fairly modern concept, but it's obvious from the vantage point of the top of the Pyramid of the Sun that it was understood pretty well by the ancient Mesoamericans at least a couple thousand years ago. In fact, I'm struck by how similar the layout of Teotihuacan is to L'Enfant's grand design of my own home town, Washington D.C. The Pyramid of the Sun has the same position of central power as our Capitol building has in Washington, and just as we have North Capitol Street running like a huge central axis north of the Capitol building, Teotihuacan has the Avenue of the Dead stretching straight towards the Pyramid of the Moon, and the mountain called Cerro Gordo lined up behind it as straight as a line drawn by the most precise land surveyor today. Amazing!
By the way, it wasn't my idea to just notice this symmetry in city planning --- I actually picked up on it by reading Andrew Coe's excellent guidebook, Archaelogical Mexico, which contains over 20 pages of very informed, scholarly based insight and viewpoint to the site. I read the whole thing at least twice through on the bus ride out to the site and found it immensely useful in that it pointed out things that I would never have thought to have looked for (I plan to do a book review on it one of these days, but I don't always get back to finishing reviews that I start). If you buy the book, be aware that Coe's prices and hours are very outdated (I have today's straight skinny for you here), but the core info is pure gold!
Don't be in too big a hurry to move on --- Teotihuacan has an excellent museum, located down a path from the Pyramid of the Sun. It's a very modern museum that showcases much of the art and cultural remnants that have been excavated from the site, including some stuff from fairly recent digs (I saw some things that were labeled as having been excavated in 1999 and 2000). There's also a cool gallery called the "Burial Room" that has lots of grisly stuff, including an exhibit on a mass grave discovered near the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, and plenty of grinning skeletons --- just in case the stories of human sacrifice didn't give you enough fodder for a year of nightmares.
Between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon is the wide Avenue of the Dead, so called because of the tombs found in many of the smaller pyramids and temples alongside it.
The Pyramid of the Moon is smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, but it is still a hefty bit of exertion to climb, and while less spectacular, it still offers a great view with its straight-line of sight down the Avenue of the Dead, giving perhaps the best panoramic perspective of the ruined city that you'll find anywhere.
Around the Pyramid of the Moon are several patios and palace areas that are worth exploring on their own right.
The Pyramid of the Moon is at the opposite end of the Teotihuacan archaelogical site from the Ciudadela, the main attraction of which is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This temple is also a pyramid, though smaller than either of the two big pyramids at Teotihuacan, but the reason to explore it is for the stone sculptures that adorn its surfaces --- something between a reptile and a bird, the Quetzalcoatl is seen seemingly poking its head out of the stone surface, either to guard it against interlopers, or perhaps to try to escape its stone prison.
Logistics 2004...
I've written about Teotihuacan before, and most of what I said in my first review of the site is still basically true. (It's always advantage writing or reading about ancient cities --- they tend not to change much). Nonetheless, I do notice a couple of things that I didn't get quite right first time around: first, the admission fee these days is 37 pesos which works out to about US$4. Second, I said that the site is about 8 square miles --- that's about right if all you include is the protected archaelogical site inside the ring road. Teotihuacan itself was about 8 times that size with ruins scattered throughout an area of about 60 square miles.
Also, I implied that there's just one entrance to the site, but there's actually five entrances, at least two of which could logically be thought of as "the main entrance". The one I was referring to is the one that's identified on my site map as the "southwest" entrance (or "Puerta 1"), located near the Ciudadela. There is also a very large "northwest" entrance (or "Puerta 5", also with a large parking area) that could be good choice if you are primarily interested in just climbing pyramids. If you happen to have a car, you might use 'em both and spare yourself some walking, since otherwise, if you do it the way I did (or anyone coming in off a bus for that matter), you're talking a good 12 miles or more worth of walking throughout the day to see just the major sites.
In my first review I did tell you to bring good shoes, hats, sunblock, and drinking water, but at this time of year I can't emphasize that enough. Teotihuacan is a huge site and you will be outdoors under a fiercely hot sun all day long. Thankfully, the area is less humid and at a much higher altitude than Texas, so it was more comfortable to be there than back home sitting in my backyard, but that's not saying much --- Teotihuacan is still a brutal place for delicate skin. Bring many fine products of the Coppertone Company.
How to get there? Well, it's possible to get in on a tour (Grey Line, Turimex, and other tour operators will pick up at major downtown hotels), or you can hoof it on your own (it's pretty easy to do). I did the same as I did last time: get up early and take the Metro subway system to Terminal Autobuses del Norte, find the ticket desk for Autobuses de Teotihuacan, get on board and sit for about 45 minutes to an hour as the bus winds its way out of the city and out to the ruins. In my view, it's more fun, more flexible, and a lot cheaper than an organized tour.
Bottom Line...
Visiting Mexico City without seeing Teotihuacan would be like visiting Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower --- it might be legal, but it's just not something a civilized and sophsticated traveler would want to do.
Teotihuacan is a fascinating place. It's huge. It's ancient. It's a kid-friendly historical site. It's exhausting to visit. It's hot. It's totally unforgettable!
By the way, this is one of the The World's Cheapest Traveler(tm)'s "best picks" because you can spend the whole day at a world-class attraction and still spend under $20. Have fun!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Dec - Feb
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