Teotihuacan:1

Let me tell you a story about an ancient city in Mesoamerica. This is a story about Teotihuacan. It is about 40 KM to the north of modern day Mexico City. It is very well connected by public bus system, and is a easy day trip from Mexico City.

looking south along the Avenue of the Dead from the Pyramid of the Moon

To me Teotihuacan is a deeply spiritual place. I have spent hours/days there. Couple of years back, I was visiting Mexico City; and every morning I would wake up around sunrise; get ready and take a bus to Teotihucan and spend whole day there until sun sets behinds those volcanic peaks and the officials closes the site down. I repeated the process for 5 days in a row!

The valley of Teotihuacan was occupied about 2400 years ago. There were various rural communities with a population of about 5000 people covering an area about 2.5-3.7 sq. miles. There were some reorganization of the settlements around 200 BC and the first planned urban settlement in Mesoamerica was created.

During the following phase of the development of the city, an incredibly sophisticated urban planning and development led to distinct city blocks and buildings (which can be still seen today), dominated by two large perpendicular roadways running through the city blocks: the North-South, The Avenue of the Dead and the East-West Avenue (no cool name here). At the peak of its development the city occupied an area of about 14 sq. miles with a peak population of 175,000 people! At the peak of its urban development, which lead to phenomenal success in language, literature, art, culture, science and technology, Teotihuacan was a beacon of human civilization and by far the largest city in Mesoamerica by 450 AD.

panoramic view taken from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun

And then something strange happened around 700-750 AD; and the entire city was abandoned suddenly well before the arrival of the Spanish. No one knows why the city was abandoned. Today the city still stands as a place : "The place where men become gods"!

Disclaimer: All photographs are my own. Just ask me please if you like to use and share; citing the source is fine.