PYRAMIDS: Part 1

   Today we visited Teotihuacán (pronounced Teh-oh-tee-wa-khan), which means "place where gods were born." This reflects the Aztec belief that the gods created the universe here, because no mortals could have created anything so massive and brilliant.

    But who were these master builders? They occupied the area from about 500 BCE to 650 AD, over one thousand years, but we don't know where they came from, where they went, or even what language they spoke. What we do know is they left an astonishing set of ruins.

    At its height, the city of Teotihuacán had an estimated 85,000 people living in a 12 square mile area carefully laid out in blocks with 2,000 apartments, wells, drainage systems, large public areas, and two huge pyramids.

PYRAMID OF THE SUN

    The Pyramid of the Sun is the third-largest in the world, after the Great Pyramid of Giza and a Mayan one buried somewhere in the jungles of Guatemala. Someone estimated that it would have taken 14,000 men working 10 hour shifts every day for 139 years to build it.

PYRAMID OF THE MOON

    The Pyramid of the Moon stands at the end of the Avenue of the Dead, which is now around two miles long, but was once twice that. At the other end is the Citadel with its Temple of the Quetzalcóatl, an area used for massive events including human sacrifice. The Pyramid of the Sun is part way down the Avenue of the Dead, almost as if they couldn't decide where to put it. It's not at one end or the other, where you'd expect such a massive structure to be. 

AVENUE OF THE DEAD (Looking down from the Pyramid of the Moon, the Pyramid of the Sun is on the left.

    When the city was deserted, its buildings were burned and its sculptures smashed. No one knows why or who did it. And it wasn't until the 1960s that serious excavation began. There is still much left to be uncovered.
   As for what WE uncovered, we're just too exhausted to tell you tonight. Tomorrow, in Part Two, when we've had a good night's sleep, we'll tell you about our experience with this astonishing place.