Wednesday, April 15, 2009

TEOTITHUACAN

Teotithuacan is about an hour bus ride from Pachuca. These tremendous pyramids were built over the course of about 200 years from around 100 BC to 100 AD. There are two large structures, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Both can be seen below.

Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon

During the height of its establishment, Teotithuacan may have had more than 100,000 inhabitants placing it among the largest cities in the world in this period. It is hypothesized that is was a multi-ethnic civilization focused on the worship of gods like the Feathered Serpent and Rain God, and human & animal sacrifice. The two grand pyramids are separated by what was known as the Avenue of the Dead which can be seen here.

Leaders were buried in the small structures that lined this walkway. It was an incredible sight. It's amazing that people were capable of this so long ago and without modern building tools and machines! It was crazy steep too. I had a hard enough time getting up there just to take a gander... I can't imagine trekking all the way up carrying gigantic stones!

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