15 MARCH 2019
This morning, we drove to visit Mexico’s grandest archaeological site, Teotihuacan, built by the Nahua. The sixth largest city in the world in 400 A.D., Teotihuacán was mysteriously abandoned 300 years later, centuries before the Aztec occupation. Visit the Jaguar Palace and the Temple of the Plumed Conch Shells. See the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. Walk the Avenue of the Dead, flanked by temples and palaces. Lunch is included. Also visit the Guadalupe shrine.
Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan, is situated some 50 km north-east of Mexico City. Built between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D., it is characterized by the vast size of its monuments – in particular, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, laid out on geometric and symbolic principles. As one of the most powerful cultural centres in Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan extended its cultural and artistic influence throughout the region, and even beyond.Teotihuacan and its valley bear unique testimony to the pre-urban structures of ancient Mexico. Human occupation of the valley of Teotihuacan began before the Christian era, but it was only between the 1st and the 7th centuries A.D. that the settlement developed into one of the largest ancient cities in the Americas, with at least 25000 inhabitants. The city was razed by fire and subsequently abandoned during the 7th century.
