Teotihuacán
Tuesday, October 17
Close to Mexico City there’s the archeological site of “Teotihuacán”. This ancient Mesoamerican city is located about 45 km northeast of Mexico City. This place is known for its many Mesoamerican pyramids and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From Mexico City, Teotihuacán can be easily reached by bus in just one hour.
Since Christoph and I work remotely from monday to friday, we set off to visit Teotihuacán on the weekend. From the northern bus terminal of the city (Terminal del Norte) we took the first bus of the day to the archeological site of “Teotihuacán” to get there as early as possible to avoid the big crowds which get there by noon.
When we arrived in Teotihuacán, the first thing we noticed was the landscape around the pyramids. The many large pyramids made from stone were very impressive and at the same time somewhat intimidating in their size and massiveness. Both the area itself and the individual pyramids were much larger than we had imagined and on the huge streets between the many pyramids you felt really tiny.
Teotihuacán was the economic and cultural center of all of Mesoamerica between 100 and 650 AD. At the height of its development, the city was the largest in the Americas and had an estimated population of 200,000. In the center of the city are the two largest pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Although the function of the pyramids is still not entirely clear, archaeologists think that the pyramids were built in honor of the gods and that there were probably altars on the flat plateau of the pyramids.
A little further there are other smaller pyramids and the palaces and houses of important people in the city (e.g. high priests or officials). Even further out there are ruins of residential complexes for the normal population. Wall paintings were found in many of the buildings, which can still be viewed on site today and which gave the archaeologists important information about the culture and everyday life of the people in Teotihuacán.
The complex of Teotihuacán is so large that you can easily spend many hours there, but you should be fit and able to walk well, as you have to walk a lot during a visit. In order to protect the stone pyramids, visitors have been banned from climbing the pyramids since 2022, but there are still plenty of exciting things to discover in the area of Teotihuacán. A visit to this place is definitely worth it and walking between these huge stone pyramids feels really special. Although you are only about an hour away from Mexico City, in Teotihuacán you can immerse yourself in a completely different world.
