Mexico’s historical ruins and ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations are well-known. In this post, I’ll talk about the mysterious Teotihuacán World Heritage Site and its pyramids, home to a civilization that flourished on the Central Mexican Plateau between the second century BCE and sixth century CE. You may not have known that Mexico has several pyramids. One of the largest is the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán, which lies about 50 km outside Mexico City and can be reached in about an hour by car. It’s the third-largest pyramid in the world, measuring 65 meters high and 225 meters on each side of its base. It’s also unique in that you can actually climb to the top of it. The Teotihuacán civilization had sophisticated astronomical knowledge, and constructed the pyramid so that the sun passed directly over its apex twice a year, setting directly in front of the entrance on the day of the summer solstice.


The Pyramid of the Sun

View from halfway up the Pyramid of the Sun. From here you can see the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Moon.
Another pyramid, the Pyramid of the Moon, lies straight down the Avenue of the Dead at its northernmost end. This one measures 42 meters high and 150 meters on each side of its base, and can also be climbed (though only partway). Archeologists believe that the large open space in front of this pyramid was used to conduct religious ceremonies.


View from the Pyramid of the Moon
If you’re ok with heights, you should definitely try climbing both the pyramids. It’s a bit challenging since they’re located at an elevation of 2,300 meters, but even small children and older people can do it. Because the steps are so steep, it’s best to hold onto the rope handholds whenever you can and take them slowly and steadily. The view from the top is really something special. The apex of the Pyramid of the Sun is considered a vortex, and is packed with both Mexicans and tourists opening their hands to the sky to take in the energy and take photos.
Despite the fact that Teotihuacán is believed to have been a massive city of as many as 200,000 people, the details are still shrouded in mystery as no written records of it remain—and nobody knows why it declined so rapidly, either. The name Teotihuacán is a Nahuatl word meaning “birthplace of the gods”. The Aztecs discovered the site in the twelfth century, about five hundred years after the Teotihuacán civilization died out, and are said to have given it its name. Nobody knows what it was originally called.
The Teotihuacán site covers about twenty square kilometers, with the Avenue of the Dead running north-south through the center of it for about five kilometers. The pyramids and other monuments line the area around it.
It takes quite a while to walk the entire Avenue of the Dead from the south to the Pyramid of the Moon at the north, but the Temple of Quetzalcoatl is at the southern end, and as you walk along the avenue you can see a puma mural painted more than a thousand years ago, temple ruins, and what are believed to be aqueducts.


Puma mural
It seems like fewer people visit the Temple of Quetzalcoatl than the pyramids, but there are a lot of interesting things to see there, too. It’s a huge structure (the third-largest at Teotihuacán) and has a distinctive talud-tablero construction that combines sloping and flat structures. There are also traces of color remaining that look reddish. Quetzalcoatl is one of the ancient gods of Mexico whose name means “feathered serpent” in Nahuatl.



Temple of Quetzalcoatl
If you have the time, you should definitely check out the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl as well, thought to have been a residence for priests. The name comes from the carvings on the pillars, which show mythological creatures with the heads of birds (quetzal) and the bodies of butterflies (papálotl). Some of the original coloration still remains. You can also see murals with some of the original color intact at the Palace of the Jaguars.


Palace of Quetzalpapálotl
If you get to Teotihuacán early in the morning, you can ride a hot air balloon and see the site from the sky. At night they light up the pyramids with a projection mapping show, but there’s nothing along the road to Teotihuacán, so be careful if you stay for it. It’s also a huge site with no shade, so make sure you dress appropriately. It can get chilly in the morning and after dusk, but it gets hot during the day and you can burn easily (in part because of the high elevation), so you’ll need to bring a long-sleeved layer and wear sunscreen. The fact that you can get to pyramids directly from the capital of Mexico City makes Teotihuacán a must-see. You’re sure to be overwhelmed at the massive scale of it.