Visiting Teotihuacan

Just outside Mexico City I visited Teotihuacan, one of the most important ancient cities in the Americas. Somehow I left with only a handful of photos, and I still have no idea how that happened. Seriously, I traveled all the way to one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world and apparently decided six pictures would be enough.

Fortunately, Teotihuacan itself is much more impressive than my photography record. The city was founded more than 2,000 years ago and eventually grew into one of the largest urban centers in the ancient world, with estimates generally placing its population well above 100,000 at its height.

One thing I misunderstood when I originally wrote this page was who actually built Teotihuacan. It was not a Maya city, and the identity of the people who founded and ruled it is still not completely understood. The city was already ancient by the time the Aztecs encountered its ruins centuries later and gave it the name Teotihuacan.

The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest structure at Teotihuacan and completely dominates the center of the archaeological site. When I visited, tourists were still allowed to climb to the top, which gave me a much better sense of just how enormous the ancient city had once been.

On the way up I took this photo showing some of the stonework and construction of the pyramid. The climb itself wasn’t technically difficult, but the size and steepness made it a lot more substantial than simply walking up a normal staircase.

From the top I could look across the remains of Teotihuacan and finally appreciate the scale of the place. The pyramids are what everyone recognizes, but they were only part of a much larger city containing temples, plazas, residential compounds, workshops, murals, and ceremonial buildings stretching across a huge area.

Archaeologists are still making discoveries here. Before my visit I was told about excavations that had uncovered human and animal remains beneath parts of the site, including animals such as wolves and birds. Discoveries like that have helped researchers piece together the religious ceremonies and political life of Teotihuacan, although plenty of mysteries remain.

Souvenir Makers

Since I somehow failed to take more photographs of the actual ruins, the rest of my pictures came from the souvenir makers around the site. This was one of the first places I remember visiting where I could actually watch people making some of the items being sold to tourists.

At first I thought seeing souvenirs being produced might make them feel less interesting, but it had the opposite effect. Watching people carve, polish, and paint pieces by hand made them feel much more connected to the place than the mass-produced souvenirs you find at many tourist destinations.

I didn’t end up buying anything, but if I had, I probably would have chosen one of these dark stone masks. At the time I thought of it as a Maya-style mask, but considering where I was, that description obviously wasn’t very accurate. Either way, the obsidian-like appearance made it one of the better souvenirs I saw during the trip.

Teotihuacan easily deserved far more photographs than I brought home. Between the Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, enormous ceremonial avenues, and archaeological remains spread across the valley, this was one of the most impressive historic places I visited in Mexico. If I ever return, I’m making sure I leave with considerably more than six pictures.