I Walked the Avenue of the Dead -- And LIVED TO TELL
Written: Jun 06 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Amazing pyramids and temples -- over 2,000 years old
Cons: Somewhat remote from downtown
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Mexico City |
Evil priests sacrificing young virgins to strange and powerful gods; warriors wiping out marauders from outlying wastelands; sorcerers scanning the night skies for signs of inspiration, or of impending famine. These are some of the tales you hear when you visit any of the ancient Mexican cities, and if you're into archaelogy, or just into fanciful flights of doom and gloom, then you owe it to yourself to spend a day visiting Mexico City's oldest tourist attraction -- Teotihuacan -- one of the oldest and coolest ancient cities in North America!
Be prepared for a grueling day, though. You'd better have good walking shoes, protection from the brutal sun, and a bottle of water. Teotihuacan isn't any dinky little Disney attraction -- it's the real deal: an ancient city of some 8 square miles, complete with three huge pyramids. To do Teotihuacan right, you'll need to walk mile after mile and climb hundreds of steep, old stone steps under the blistering central Mexico sun (hot even in January!)
Teotihuacan is rather an anomaly among ruins in the Mexico City area -- it's not an Aztec city. In fact, experts believe the city was abandoned centuries before the rise to power of the Aztec people -- or even their predecesors, the Toltecs. Archaelogists think the city was built around 500 B.C., and with a population of about 200,000 people. The city was abandoned around 750 A.D., and although it was visited by Toltecs and Aztecs, it never again developed as a population center. This is probably why its in such good condition -- the Spanish invaders ignored it, while destroying most of the nearby Aztec cities, such as Tenochtitlan.
Walking Through Ruins...
First stop is the visitors center. This is where the buses drop everyone else, and you'll need to pay an admission fee to enter. When I was there, it was about 50 pesos to get in. The sign said they charge a fee if you have a camera, but the guy didn't ask me if I had one, and I didn't volunteer any info about my small pocket Minolta. You can also hire a local guide here if you want a little bit of historical insight, not to mention a local perspective on the place. The guides are usually pretty inexpensive, funny, informed, and well worth the money. Some of them do speak English.
After passing through the turnstile, there are the ominpresent vendors hawking mostly junk, but sometimes an occasional interesting memento. There's also an interesting museum that contains a vast map of the site, and which can help you get your bearings, plus get a feel for the immense size of the site.
Coming out of the museum, you find yourself face to face with the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and a fortress-like area called the Ciudadela. The guide I'd hired took a moment here to point out the precise layout of the city. The city was an urban area built on a perfect grid pattern with precise alignment based on the suns position on the solstice. Amazing...an urban planned community 500 years before the birth of christianity.
We walked through the Ciudadela area, with its various smaller chambers, temples, and other structures, the center of which is the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, which gets its name from the various carvings of feathered serpents or dragons, or birds, or whatever heck the Quetzal is supposed to be. The serpents and jaguars are usually pretty easy to recognize, but the Quetzal strikes me as having a figure thought up by someone with more than a moderate dose of imagination.
After coming out of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, walk up the Avenue of the Dead. This wide avenue was once the main street of the city, and stretches more than a mile northward, ending at the Pyramid of the Moon. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl is small enough to be able to climb without too much stress, although the stairs are mighty steep and high. I don't know what it is about these ancient Mexican dudes -- they must have loved jumping up stairs because some of 'em feel like they're a good half meter high. I've noticed the same steep kind of stairs at places like Chichen Itza (see my epinion about Chichen Itza under the Yucatan category).
As you walk along the Avenue of the Dead, you'll see all these low buildings kind of burrowed into hills. There are steps going up and doors inset into stone walls. I was told that these were thought to have once held tombs, but that the street's name was still appropriate because several skulls and other bones were found by archaelogists doing digs at some of the buildings.
The Avenue of the Dead passes by the front of the Pyramid of the Sun -- the biggest structure at the site, and the third largest in the world. The Pyramid of the Sun is often compared to the great pyramid at Cheops Egypt. Both pyramids cover about the same area, though the one at Cheops is much higher than that at Teotihuacan. The short stature of the building gives it a sort of squat, stubby appearance. It might not be the tallest pyramid in the world, but it is still a heck of a lot of work to climb to the top. The steps are even worse (higher) than on Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and by the time I reached the top I was out of breath, sweating so hard it looked like someone turned a hose on me, and my knee was crying out in agony -- and I still had to get back down! Fortunately, I took the time to rest for a few minutes and take some pictures. From the vantage point high at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, you can get some stunning pictures of the site that look almost like aerial views. You also have a great view of the Mexico City valley, and it's said that on a clear day you can see downtown. I didn't see downtown, but I could sure see a heck of a lot further than I could from downtown looking out.
Appropriately enough, Avenue of the Dead dead ends -- right in front of the Pyramid of the Moon. There is a plaza area here with lots of small buildings, temples, and such, including one called the Palace of the Butterfly, another called the Jaguar Palace, and one for bizarre animals. There is also an inner temple called the Cave of the Oracle, which was not discovered until the early 1970s. Again, a climb to the top of the pyramid is warranted, if for no other reason than to get that postcard shot straight down the Avenue of the Dead.
There are some other ruins off to one side, including some kind of palace and some lesser temples. But, I was feeling pretty beat by the end of the day, so put those off for another visit....
Tours:
Most of the big downtown hotels can probably hook you up with a tour group, and might even be able to get you one that speaks that english. This might be the best course for anyone unfamiliar with the city. If you want to try hoofing it yourself, follow my directions below.
Getting There:
Teotihuacan is on the northeast side of Mexico City, but it's pretty far -- probably 30 miles or about an hour drive from downtown, so a taxi might be expensive. There are lots of buses going there though. From downtown, I took the Metro (Line 3 towards Indios Verdes, getting off at La Raza, then switch to Line 5 towards Politecnico; get off at Autobuses del Norte. Be prepared for the La Raza station -- it's a huge labyrinth of passageways, I think there are shorter marathons!) The bus station, called TAN, is also huge -- practically a city in itself, and rather than give you directions for getting around inside the station, it would be better to simply go to the central information desk and ask them which companies run buses to Teotihuacan.
Race to the Top!:
I love touring the ruins of ancient civilizations and fantasizing about what life in those times must have been like. Of all the more than 50 major archaelogical tourist sites in Mexico, Teotihuacan is the oldest, and one of the biggest. (See my epinion about other Ancient Cities under the Mexico category). Teotihuacan's close proximity to Mexico City also makes it a pretty easy day trip. If you get a chance to visit Mexico City, I definitely recommend a jaunt out to the ruins. Watch out for those priests though!
Recommended:
Yes
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