The Ancient City of Teotihuacan

By Rachel
June 25

I honestly cannot believe that we are already leaving Mexico tomorrow. It has been an amazing experience to be able to come here, learn about the history, try some new foods, and practice speaking Spanish. I am very grateful to all the people who have been so kind and inviting to my family as we travel around this amazing country.

Today was probably one of the most amazing days we have had in Mexico. We got to explore the ancient ruins of the Teotihuacan civilization. The civilization existed right outside Mexico city from about 100 B.C. until about 700 A.D. when it fell- mostly likely to internal conflict. At its height, Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the world. Even after it fell, the Aztecs probably still recognized the significance of their temples and continues to respect and use them.

Inside Teotihuacan, there are several temples, the largest are the Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun. The Temple of the Sun is the third highest ancient pyramid in the world. The view from the top overlooking the rest of the ruins made it worth the very steep stairs. The pyramids are now a faded grey color, but it is believed that they were all once a vibrant red color. I cannot imagine what a beautiful sight the city must have been. The temples were used for religious ceremonies. The people believed in several hundred different gods. On previous days, we learned about some of their rituals which sometimes involved cutting out a human heart as a sacrifice for the gods.

That's the Temple of the Sun behind us. We climbed the 248 steps to the talk.

The view of the Temple of the Moon from on top of the Temple of the Sun

We started the day by going up the two major temples. Sarah Ann's feet were worn out due to all the walking from previous days (she has severs), so Taylor and I took turns carrying her when we were on flat ground between the temples. Between the temples, there were also people selling all sorts of different souvenirs. Perhaps the most common was a jaguar whistle. It was this brightly painted thing that made a call like a jaguar if you blew into it. People were selling them everywhere and in order to attract attention, they would do demonstrations of the jaguar sounds. This meant that the whole area sounded as if it was filled by jaguars. Christian and Taylor started debating whether the "jaguars" would eat us and where they could be living. They decided that I was going to be eaten as a midnight snack.

We are sitting at the top of some stairs on the Temple of the Moon, looking at over the rest of Teotihuacan. You can see the Temple of the Sun on the left.

After climbing up the two major temples, we walked around some of the ruins and ended up walking to see some murals that had been well-preserved. The paintings were clearly chipped, but you could make out the designs that at one point covered much of the ruins we saw. We also got to see inside some of the areas where people would have lived. There was also a  museum with several artifacts from the Teotihuacan. Honestly, it was all so incredible.

 

Here is one of the murals. These were on many of the walls inside the temples.

These carvings are on the front of one of the temples.

These are the remains of some houses. You can see the room divisions.

The temperature was perfect all day (as it is almost every day here), but we all got a little sunburned, even though we wore sunscreen. I find it slightly amusing that I am going to return to home sunburned even though we never went to the beach.

In the afternoon it started raining, and we headed back home on the bus. I was sad to leave behind the incredible ruins with all the history.