Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan, in San Juan Teotihuacán in the State of Mexico about 50 km northeast of Mexico City, was one of the largest cities in the ancient Americas. Settlement began around 100 BC, and the city reached its height between roughly 150 and 550 AD, when it covered about 20 square kilometres and was laid out on a strict grid. By the time the Aztecs found the abandoned ruins centuries later, its origins were already legend, and the Aztec name, meaning place where the gods were created, is the one still used. The builders' own name for the city is not known. The site is centred on the Avenue of the Dead, a roughly 2 km processional axis lined with platforms and temples. At its northern end stands the Pyramid of the Moon, and along the avenue rises the Pyramid of the Sun, about 65 metres high and among the largest pyramids in the Western Hemisphere. At the southern end the Ciudadela encloses the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, whose façade carries sculpted serpent heads and was the focus of mass burials discovered in the late 20th century. The Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, near the Pyramid of the Moon, preserves carved columns and patio murals, and the residential compounds of Tepantitla and Atetelco hold some of the best-preserved painted murals, including the so-called Tlalocan paradise scene. The site is an open-air archaeological zone rather than a curated museum, so interpretation comes through signage and the on-site Museo de la Cultura Teotihuacana, which displays figurines, obsidian work and murals. The experience is essentially a walk along the avenue and up the stairways. The city declined and was burned and abandoned around the 6th to 8th centuries. Modern restoration began in earnest in the early 20th century with Leopoldo Batres, whose reconstruction of the Pyramid of the Sun's façade is now regarded as heavy-handed, and later projects by INAH have used more conservative methods, including tunnel excavations beneath the Feathered Serpent temple. Teotihuacan was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987, and the monuments remain in a good but weather-exposed state of preservation.