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Teotihuacan (; Spanish language: Teotihuacán, ; ) is an ancient city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City.
Teotihuacan is known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas, namely the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Although close to Mexico City, Teotihuacan was not a Mexica (i.e. Aztec) city, and it predates the Aztec Empire by many centuries. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the first millennium (1 CE to 500 CE), Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Americas, with a population of at least 25,000, but has been estimated at 125,000 or more,Millon, p. 18. making it at least the sixth-largest city in the world during its epoch.Millon, p. 17, who says it was the sixth-largest city in the world in 600 AD.
The city covered and 80 to 90 percent of the total population of the valley resided in Teotihuacan. Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and its vibrant, well-preserved . Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools found throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BCE, with major monuments continuously under construction until about 250 CE. The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 CE. Its collapse might be related to the extreme weather events of 535–536.
Teotihuacan began as a religious center in the Mexican Plateau around the first century CE. It became the largest and most populated center in the pre-Columbian Americas. Teotihuacan was home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate the large population. The term Teotihuacan (or Teotihuacano) is also used to refer to the whole civilization and cultural complex associated with the site.
Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of a state empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented. Evidence of Teotihuacano presence is found at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. The later Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, modifying and adopting aspects of their culture. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is the subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua peoples, Otomi people, or Totonac ethnic groups. Other scholars have suggested that Teotihuacan was Polyethnicity, due to the discovery of cultural aspects connected to the Maya as well as Oto-Pamean people. It is clear that many different cultural groups lived in Teotihuacan during the height of its power, with migrants coming from all over, but especially from Oaxaca and the Gulf Coast.
After the collapse of Teotihuacan, central Mexico was dominated by more regional powers, notably Xochicalco and Tula.
The city and the archeological site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, approximately northeast of Mexico City. The site covers a total surface area of and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It was the second most-visited archeological site in Mexico in 2024, receiving 1,313,321 visitors.
The original name of the city is unknown, but it appears in Maya script from the Maya region as puh, or "Place of Reeds".Mathews and Schele (1997, p. 39) This suggests that, in the Maya civilization of the Classic period, Teotihuacan was understood as a Place of Reeds similar to other Postclassic Central Mexican settlements that took the name of Tollan, such as Tula-Hidalgo and Cholula.
This naming convention led to much confusion in the early 20th century, as scholars debated whether Teotihuacan or Tula-Hidalgo was the Tollan described by 16th-century chronicles. It now seems clear that Tollan may be understood as a generic Nahua term applied to any large settlement. In the Mesoamerican concept of urbanism, Tollan and other language equivalents serve as a metaphor, linking the bundles of reeds and rushes that formed part of the lake environment of the Valley of Mexico and the large gathering of people in a city.Miller and Taube (1993, p. 170)
As of January 23, 2018, the name Teotihuacan has come under scrutiny by experts, who now feel that the site's name may have been changed by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century. Archeologist Verónica Ortega of the National Institute of Anthropology and History states that the city appears to have actually been named Teohuacan, meaning "City of the Sun" rather than "City of the Gods", as the current name suggests.
The history of Teotihuacan is distinguished by four consecutive periods:
Period I occurred between 200 – 1 BCE and marks the development of a distinctively urban area. During this period, Teotihuacan began to grow into a city as local farmers began coalescing around the abundant springs of Teotihuacan.
Period II lasted between 1 CE to 350 CE. During this era, Teotihuacan exhibited explosive growth and emerged as the largest metropolis in Mesoamerica. Factors influencing this growth include the destruction of other settlements due to volcanic eruptions and the economic pull of the expanding city. This influx of new residents caused a reorganization of urban housing to the unique compound complexes that typify Teotihuacan. This period is notable for its monumental architecture and sculpture, especially the construction of some of the most well-known sites of Teotihuacan, the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. Further, the shift of political power from the Temple of the Feathered Serpent and its surrounding palace structure to the Avenue of the Dead Complex occurred sometime between CE 250 and 350. Some authors believe that this represents a shift from the centralized, monarchical political system to a more decentralized and bureaucratic organization. Around 300 CE, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent was desecrated and construction in the city proceeded in a more egalitarian direction, focusing on the building of comfortable, stone accommodations for the population .Graeber, David and Wengrow, David "The Dawn of Everything, A New History of Humanity" (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), pp. 342–343
Period III lasted from 350 to 650 CE and is known as the classical period of Teotihuacan, during which the city reached the apogee of influence in Mesoamerica. Its population is estimated at a minimum of 125,000 inhabitants, and the city was among the largest cities in the ancient world, containing 2,000 buildings within an area of 18 square kilometers. It was also during this high period when Teotihuacan contained approximately half all people in the Valley of Mexico, becoming a kind of primate city of Mesoamerica. This period saw a massive reconstruction of buildings, and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, which dates back to the previous period, was covered with a plaza with rich sculptural decoration. Typical artistic artifacts of this period are funeral masks, crafted mainly from green stone and covered with mosaics of turquoise, shell or obsidian. These masks were highly uniform in nature.
Period IV describes the time period between 650 and 750 CE. It marks the end of Teotihuacan as a major power in Mesoamerica. The city's elite housing compounds, clustered around the Avenue of the Dead, bear many burn marks, and archeologists hypothesize that the city experienced civil strife that hastened its decline. Factors that also led to the decline of the city included disruptions in tributary relations, increased social stratification, and power struggles between the ruling and intermediary elites. Following this decline, Teotihuacan continued to be inhabited, though it never reached its previous levels of population.
In the Late Formative era, a number of urban centers arose in central Mexico. The most prominent of these appears to have been Cuicuilco, on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco. Scholars have speculated that the eruption of the Xitle volcano may have prompted a mass emigration out of the central valley and into the Teotihuacan valley. These settlers may have founded or accelerated the growth of Teotihuacan.Secrets of the Dead, episode Teotihuacan's Lost Kings, PBS, 30 October 2018
Other scholars have put forth the Totonac people as the founders of Teotihuacan and have suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state since they find diverse cultural aspects connected to the Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya peoples. The builders of Teotihuacan took advantage of the geography in the Basin of Mexico. From the swampy ground, they constructed raised beds, called chinampas, creating high agricultural productivity despite old methods of cultivation. This allowed for the formation of channels, and subsequently canoe traffic, to transport food from farms around the city. The earliest buildings at Teotihuacan date to about 200 BCE. The largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by 100 CE.Millon (1993), p. 24.
In January 378, the warlord Sihyaj K'ahk' (literally, "born of fire" in Maya language, although the original teotihuacano spelling is unknown), depicted with artifacts and the feather-serpent imagery associated with Teotihuacan culture, conquered Tikal, 600 miles away from Teotihuacan, removing and replacing the Maya king, with support from El Peru and Naachtun, as recorded by Stela 31 at Tikal and other monuments in the Maya region. At this time, the Spearthrower Owl ruler was also associated with Teotihuacan culture. Linda Manzanilla wrote in 2015:
The nature of political and cultural interactions between Teotihuacan and the centers of the Maya region (as well as elsewhere in Mesoamerica) has been a long-standing and significant area for debate. Substantial exchange and interaction occurred over the centuries from the Terminal Preclassic to the Mid-Classic period. "Teotihuacan-inspired ideologies" and motifs persisted at Maya centers into the Late Classic, long after Teotihuacan itself had declined.Braswell (2003, p. 7) However, scholars debate the extent and degree of Teotihuacan influence. Some believe that it had direct and militaristic dominance while others view the adoption of "foreign" traits as part of a selective, conscious, and bi-directional cultural diffusion. New discoveries have suggested that Teotihuacan was not much different in its interactions with other centers from the later empires, such as the Toltec and Aztec. It is believed that Teotihuacan had a major influence on the Preclassic and Classic Maya.
Architectural styles prominent at Teotihuacan are found widely dispersed at a number of distant Mesoamerican sites, which some researchers have interpreted as evidence for Teotihuacan's far-reaching interactions and political or militaristic dominance.See for example Cheek (1977, passim.), who argues that much of Teotihuacan's influence stems from direct militaristic conquest. A style particularly associated with Teotihuacan is known as talud-tablero, in which an inwards-sloping external side of a structure ( talud) is surmounted by a rectangular panel ( tablero). Variants of the generic style are found in a number of Maya region sites including Tikal, Kaminaljuyu, Copan, Becan, and Oxkintok, and particularly in the Petén Basin and the central Guatemalan highlands.See Laporte (2003, p. 205); Varela Torrecilla and Braswell (2003, p. 261). The talud-tablero style pre-dates its earliest appearance at Teotihuacan in the Early Classic period; it appears to have originated in the Tlaxcala-Puebla region during the Preclassic.Braswell (2003, p. 11) Analyses have traced the development into local variants of the talud-tablero style at sites such as Tikal, where its use precedes the 5th-century appearance of iconographic motifs shared with Teotihuacan. The talud-tablero style disseminated through Mesoamerica generally from the end of the Preclassic period, and not specifically, or solely, via Teotihuacano influence. It is unclear how or from where the style spread into the Maya region. During its zenith, the main structures at Teotihuacan, including the pyramids, were painted in impressive shades of dark red, with some small spots persisting to this day.Braswell (2003, p. 11); for the analysis at Tikal, see Laporte (2003, pp. 200–205)
The city was a center of industry, home to many potters, jewelers, and craftspeople. Teotihuacan is known for producing a great number of obsidian artifacts. No ancient Teotihuacano non-ideogram texts are known to exist (or known to have once existed). Inscriptions from Maya cities show that Teotihuacan nobility traveled to, and perhaps conquered, local rulers as far away as Honduras. Maya script note an individual named by scholars as "Spearthrower Owl", apparently ruler of Teotihuacan, who reigned for over 60 years and installed his relatives as rulers of Tikal and Uaxactun in Guatemala.
Scholars have based interpretations of Teotihuacan culture on its archeology, murals that adorn the site (and others, like the Wagner Murals, found in private collections), and hieroglyphic inscriptions made by the Maya describing their encounters with Teotihuacan conquerors. The creation of murals, perhaps tens of thousands of murals, reached its height between 450 and 650. The artistry of the painters was unrivaled in Mesoamerica and has been compared with that of painters in Renaissance Florence, Italy.Davies, p. 78.
Evidence for population decline beginning around the 6th century lends some support to the internal unrest hypothesis. The decline of Teotihuacan has been correlated to lengthy related to the climate changes of 535–536, possibly caused by the eruption of Lake Ilopango in El Salvador. This theory of ecological decline is supported by archeological remains that show a rise in the percentage of juvenile skeletons with evidence of malnutrition during the 6th century, further supporting the hypothesis of famine as one of the more plausible reasons for the decline of Teotihuacan. Urbanized Teotihuacanos would likely have been dependent on agricultural crops such as maize, beans, amaranth, tomatillos, and pumpkins. If climate change affected crop yields, then the harvest would not have been sufficient to feed Teotihucan's extensive population. However, the two main hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. Drought leading to famine could have led to incursions from smaller surrounding civilizations as well as internal unrest.Kaufman (2001, p. 4)
As Teotihuacan fell in local prominence, other nearby centers, such as Cholula, Xochicalco, and Cacaxtla, competed to fill the power void. They may have even aligned themselves against Teotihuacan to seize the opportunity to further reduce its influence and power. The art and architecture at these sites emulate Teotihuacan forms but also demonstrate an eclectic mix of motifs and iconography from other parts of Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya region.
The sudden destruction of Teotihuacan was common for Mesoamerican city-states of the Classic and Epi-Classic period. Many Maya states suffered similar fates in subsequent centuries, a series of events often referred to as the Classic Maya collapse. Nearby, in the Morelos valley, Xochicalco was sacked and burned in 900, and Tula met a similar fate around 1150.
In the Tzacualli phase (–150 CE), Teotihuacan saw a population growth to approximately 60,000 to 80,000 people, most of whom are believed to have come from the Mexican basin. Following this growth, however, the influx of new residents slowed, and evidence suggests that, by the Miccaotli phase, , the urban population had reached its maximum.
In 2001, Terrence Kaufman presented linguistic evidence suggesting that an important ethnic group in Teotihuacan was of Totonacan or Mixe–Zoquean linguistic affiliation. Terrence Kaufman, "Nawa linguistic prehistory" , SUNY Albany He uses this to explain general influences from Totonacan and Mixe–Zoquean languages in many other Mesoamerican languages, whose people did not have any known history of contact with either of the abovementioned groups. Other scholars maintain that the largest population group must have been of Otomi ethnicity because the Otomi language is known to have been spoken in the area around Teotihuacan both before and after the Classic period and not during the middle period.*
Teotihuacan compounds show evidence of being segregated into three classes: high elites, intermediate elites, and the laboring class. Residential architectural structures seem to be differentiable by the artistry and complexity of the structure itself. Based on the quality of construction materials and sizes of rooms as well as the quality of assorted objects found in the residency, dwellings radiating outward from the Central district and along the Avenue of the Dead might have been occupied by higher status individuals. However, Teotihuacan overall does not appear to have been organized into discrete zoning districts. The more elite compounds were often decorated with elaborate murals. Thematic elements of these murals included processions of lavishly dressed priests, jaguar figures, the storm god deity, and an anonymous goddess whose hands offer gifts of maize, precious stones, and water. Rulers who may have requested to be immortalized through art are noticeably absent in Teotihuacan artwork. Observed artwork, instead, tends to portray institutionalized offices and deities. It suggests their art glorifies nature and the supernatural and emphasizes egalitarian rather than aristocratic values. Also absent from Teotihuacan artwork is writing, despite the city having a strong network of contact with the literate Maya.
The laboring classes, themselves also stratified, consisted of farmers, skilled craftworkers, and the peripheral rural population. The city dwelling craftspeople of various specialties were housed in apartment complexes distributed throughout the city, known as neighborhood centers, and evidence shows that these centers were the economic and cultural engines of Teotihuacan. Established by the elite to showcase the sumptuary goods that the resident craftsmen provided, the neighborhood centers representing diversity in goods was aided by the heavy concentration of immigrated individuals from different regions of Mesoamerica. Along with archeological evidence pointing to one of the primary traded items being textiles, craftspeople capitalized on their mastery of painting, building, the performance of music and military training. These neighborhood centers closely resembled individual compounds, often surrounded by physical barriers separating them from the others. In this way, Teotihuacan developed an internal economic competition that fueled productivity and helped create a social structure of its own that differed from the larger structure. The repeated actions of the craftworkers left their physical mark. Based on the wear of teeth, archeologists were able to determine that some bodies worked with fibers with their frontal teeth, insinuating that they were involved with making nets, like those depicted in mural art. Female skeletons provided evidence that they might have sewn or painted for long periods of time, indicative of the headdresses that were created as well as pottery which was fired and painted. Wear on specific joints indicate the carrying of heavy objects over an extended period of time. Evidence of these heavy materials is found in the copious amounts of imported pottery, and raw materials found on-site, such as rhyolitic glass shards, marble, and slate. The residences of the rural population of the city were in enclaves between the middle-class residences or the periphery of the city while smaller encampments filled with earthenware from other regions, also suggest that merchants were situated in their own encampments as well.
Esther Pasztory adds one more:Pasztory (1997), pp. 83–84.
The consensus among scholars is that the primary deity of Teotihuacan was the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan.Cowgill (1997), p. 149. Pasztory (1992), p. 281. The dominant civic architecture is the pyramid. Politics were based on the state religion, and religious leaders were the political leaders.Sugiyama, p. 111. Religious leaders would commission artists to create religious artworks for ceremonies and rituals. The artwork likely commissioned would have been a mural or a censer depicting gods like the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan or the Feathered Serpent. would be lit during religious rituals to invoke the gods including rituals with human sacrifice.
As evidenced from human and animal remains found during excavations of the pyramids in the city, Teotihuacanos practiced human sacrifice. Scholars believe that the people offered human sacrifices as part of a dedication when buildings were expanded or constructed. The victims were probably enemy warriors captured in battle and brought to the city for ritual sacrifice to ensure the city could prosper.Coe (1994), p. 98. Some men were decapitated, some had their hearts removed, others were killed by being hit several times over the head, and some were buried alive. Animals that were considered sacred and represented mythical powers and the military were also buried alive or captured and held in cages such as cougars, a wolf, eagles, a falcon, an owl, and even venomous snakes.Sugiyama: 109, 111
Numerous stone masks have been found at Teotihuacan, and have been generally believed to have been used during a funerary context. However, other scholars call this into question, noting that the masks "do not seem to have come from burials".Pasztory (1993), p. 54.
The population reached its peak numbers around 400 to 500 CE. During 400 to 500 CE, the Xolalpan period, the city's population was estimated to be 100,000 to 200,000 people. This number was achieved by estimating compound sizes to hold approximately 60 to 100, with 2,000 compounds. These high numbers continued until the city started to decline between 600 and 700 CE.
One of Teotihuacan's neighborhoods, Teopancazco, was occupied during most of the time Teotihuacan was as well. It showed that Teotihuacan was a multiethnic city that was broken up into areas of different ethnicities and workers. This neighborhood was important in two ways; the high infant mortality rate and the role of the different ethnicities. The high infant mortality rate was important within the neighborhood, and the city at large, as there are a large number of perinatal skeletons at Teopancazco. This suggests that the population of Teotihuacan was sustained and grew due to people coming into the city, rather than the population reproducing. The influx of people came from surrounding areas, bringing different ethnicities to the city.
Teotihuacan also had two other neighborhoods that prominently depicted this multiethnic city picture. Both neighborhoods contained not only different architecture from the other parts of Teotihuacan but also artifacts and burial practices that began the narrative of these places. Archaeologists have also performed oxygen isotope ratio testing and strontium isotope ratio testing to determine, using the bones and the teeth of the skeletons uncovered, whether these skeletons were native to Teotihuacan or were immigrants to the city. The oxygen ratio testing can be used to determine where someone grew up, and the strontium ratio testing can be used to determine where someone was born and where they were living when they died. These tests revealed a lot of information, but specifically enabled clear distinction between the people living in the ethnic neighborhoods and those native to Teotihuacan.
One neighborhood was called Tlailotlacan and was believed to be a neighborhood of migrants predominantly from the Oaxaca region. The excavations there featured prominently artifacts in the Zapotec style of from the Zapotec region, including one tomb with an antechamber. The oxygen isotope ratio testing was particularly helpful when analyzing this neighborhood because it painted a clear picture of the initial influx from Oaxaca, followed by routine journeys back to the homeland to maintain the culture and heritage of the following generations. Later oxygen isotope ratio testing also revealed that out of the skeletons tested, four-fifths of them had immigrated to the city or were born in the city, but spent their childhood in their homeland before returning to Teotihuacan. There was evidence of constant interaction between Teotihuacan and the Oaxacan homeland through journeys taken by children and mothers, keeping the culture and the roots to their homeland alive.
The other main neighborhood was called Barrio de Los Comerciantes, or the Merchants' Barrio. There is less information about those who lived here (or perhaps more research needs to be done), but this neighborhood also had clear differences from other areas of the city. The architecture was different, featuring round adobe structures, as well as foreign pottery and artifacts identified as belonging to the Gulf Coast region. This neighborhood, similarly to Tlailotclan, saw a huge influx of immigration, determined by the strontium isotope ratio testing of bones and teeth, with people spending a significant part of their lives before death in Teotihuacan.
Further excavations at the Ciudadela were carried out in the 1920s, supervised by Manuel Gamio. Between April 26 and July 29, 1932, Swedish anthropologist/archaeologist Sigvald Linné, his wife, and a small crew excavated in the Xolalpan area, part of the municipality of San Juan Teotihuacán. Other sections of the site were excavated in the 1940s and 1950s. The first site-wide project of restoration and excavation was carried out by INAH from 1960 to 1965, supervised by Jorge Acosta. This undertaking had the goals of clearing the Avenue of the Dead, consolidating the structures facing it, and excavating the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl.Acosta, Jorge R. "ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN TEOTIHUACAN." Artes De México, no. 134 (1970): 11–18. Accessed September 13, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24316098.
During the installation of a "sound and light" show in 1971, workers discovered the entrance to a tunnel and cave system underneath the Pyramid of the Sun.Heyden (1975, p. 131) Although scholars long thought this to be a natural cave, more recent examinations have established the tunnel was entirely manmade.Šprajc (2000), p. 410 The interior of the Pyramid of the Sun has never been fully excavated.
In 1980–82, another major program of excavation and restoration was carried out at the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent and the Avenue of the Dead complex. Most recently, a series of excavations at the Pyramid of the Moon have greatly expanded evidence of cultural practices.
First trying to examine the hole with a flashlight from above Gómez could see only darkness, so tied with a line of heavy rope around his waist he was lowered by several colleagues, and descending into the murk he realized it was a perfectly cylindrical shaft. At the bottom he came to rest in an apparently ancient construction – a man-made tunnel, blocked in both directions by immense stones. Gómez was aware that archeologists had previously discovered a narrow tunnel underneath the Pyramid of the Sun and supposed he was now observing a kind of similar mirror tunnel, leading to a subterranean chamber beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. He decided initially to elaborate on a clear hypothesis and to obtain approval. Meanwhile, he erected a tent over the sinkhole to preserve it from the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Teotihuacán. Researchers reported that the tunnel was believed to have been sealed in 200 CE.The Associated Press. Experts: Ancient Mexicans crossbred wolf-dogs, Phys.org (Science X network), December 16, 2010Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. Tunnel found under temple in Mexico, Phys.org (Science X network), May 30, 2011
Preliminary planning of the exploration and fundraising took more than six years.
Before the start of excavations, beginning in the early months of 2004, Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, from UNAM Institute of Geophysics, determined with the help of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and a team of some 20 archeologists and workers the approximate length of the tunnel and the presence of internal chambers. They scanned the earth under the Ciudadela, returning every afternoon to upload the results to Gómez's computers. By 2005, the digital map was complete. The archeologists explored the tunnel with a remote-controlled robot called Tlaloc II-TC, equipped with an infrared camera and a laser scanner that generates 3D visualization to perform three-dimensional register of the spaces beneath the temple. A small opening in the tunnel wall was made and the scanner captured the first images, 37 meters into the passage. First Images of the Interior of Teotihuacan Tunnel Captured by Camera on Small Robot, ArtDaily, November 12, 2010Rossella Lorenzi. Robot finds mysterious spheres in ancient temple, NBCNews.com, April 30, 2013
In 2009, the government granted Gómez permission to dig. By the end of 2009 archeologists of the INAH located the entrance to the tunnel that leads to galleries under the pyramid, where remains of rulers of the ancient city might have been deposited. In August 2010 Gómez Chávez, now director of Tlalocan Project: Underground Road, announced that INAH's investigation of the tunnel – closed nearly 1,800 years ago by Teotihuacan dwellers – would proceed. The INAH team, consisting of about 30 people supported by national and international advisors at the highest scientific levels, intended to enter the tunnel in September–October 2010. This excavation, the deepest made at the Pre-Hispanic site, was part of the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of archeological excavations at Teotihuacan and its opening to the public.
It was mentioned that the underground passage runs under Feathered Serpent Temple, and the entrance is located a few meters away from the temple at the expected place, deliberately sealed with large boulders nearly 2,000 years ago. The hole that had appeared during the 2003 storms was not the actual entrance; a vertical shaft of almost 5 meters by side is the access to the tunnel. At 14 meters deep, the entrance leads to a nearly 100-meter long corridor that ends in a series of underground galleries in the rock. After archeologists broke ground at the entrance of the tunnel, a staircase, and ladders that would allow easy access to the subterranean site were installed. Works advanced slowly and with painstaking care; excavating was done manually, with spades. Nearly 1,000 tons of soil and debris were removed from the tunnel. There were large spiral seashells, cat bones, pottery, fragments of human skin. The rich array of objects unearthed included: wooden masks covered with inlaid rock jade and quartz, elaborate necklaces, rings, greenstone crocodile teeth and human figurines, crystals shaped into eyes, beetle wings arranged in a box, sculptures of jaguars, and hundreds of Metallizing spheres. The mysterious globes lay in both the north and south chambers. Ranging from 40 to 130 millimeters, the balls have a core of clay and are covered with a yellow jarosite formed by the oxidation of pyrite. According to George Cowgill of Arizona State University, the spheres are a fascinating find: "Pyrite was certainly used by the Teotihuacanos and other ancient Mesoamerican societies. Originally, the spheres would have shown sic brilliantly. They are indeed unique, but I have no idea what they mean." All these artifacts were deposited deliberately and pointedly, as if in offering to appease the gods.
One of the most remarkable findings in the tunnel chambers was a miniature mountainous landscape, 17 meters underground, with tiny pools of liquid mercury representing lakes.Alan Yuhas. Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king's tomb, The Guardian, 24 April 2015 The walls and ceiling of the tunnel were found to have been carefully impregnated with mineral powder composed of magnetite, pyrite (fool's gold), and hematite to provide a glittering brightness to the complex, and to create the effect of standing under the stars as a peculiar re-creation of the underworld. At the end of the passage, Gómez Chávez's team uncovered four greenstone statues, wearing garments and beads; their open eyes would have shone with precious minerals. Two of the figurines were still in their original positions, leaning back and appearing to contemplate up at the axis where the three planes of the universe meet – likely the founding shamans of Teotihuacan, guiding pilgrims to the sanctuary, and carrying bundles of sacred objects used to perform rituals, including pendants and pyrite mirrors, which were perceived as portals to other realms.
After each new segment was cleared, the 3D scanner documented the progress. By 2015 nearly 75,000 fragments of artifacts have been discovered, studied, cataloged, analyzed and, when possible, restored.
The significance of these new discoveries is publicly explored in a major exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, which opened in late September 2017.
A recent discovery of an 1800-year-old bouquet of flowers was made in 2021. The flowers, which were found in the tunnel beneath a pyramid dedicated to the feathered serpent deity Quetzalcóatl, date to between roughly 1 and 200 C.E. It is the first time such a well-preserved plant matter has been discovered at Teotihuacan.
The Avenue of the Dead is roughly 40 meters wide and 4 km long. Further down the Avenue of the Dead, after a small river, is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city. The name "Citadel" was given to it by the Spanish, who believed it was a fort. Most of the common people lived in large apartment buildings spread across the city. Many of the buildings contained workshops where artisans produced pottery and other goods.
The urban layout of Teotihuacan exhibits two slightly different orientations, which resulted from both astronomical and topographic criteria. The central part of the city, including the Avenue of the Dead, conforms to the orientation of the Sun Pyramid, while the southern part reproduces the orientation of the Ciudadela. The two constructions recorded sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar. The orientation of the Sun Pyramid was intended to record "the sunrises on February 11 and October 29 and sunsets on April 30 and August 13. The interval from February 11 and October 29, as well as from August 13 to April 30, is exactly 260 days". The recorded intervals are multiples of 13 and 20 days, which were elementary periods of the Mesoamerican calendar. Furthermore, the Sun Pyramid is aligned to Cerro Gordo to the north, which means that it was purposefully built on a spot where a structure with a rectangular ground plan could satisfy both topographic and astronomical requirements. The artificial cave under the pyramid additionally attests to the importance of this spot.
Another example of artificial landscape modifications is the course of the San Juan River, which was modified to bend around the structures as it goes through the center of town eventually returning to its natural course outside of Teotihuacan.
Pecked-cross circles throughout the city and in the surrounding regions served as a way to design the urban grid, and as a way to read their 260-day calendar. The urban grid had great significance to city planners when constructing Teotihuacan, as the cross is pecked into the ground in the Pyramid of the Sun in specific places throughout Teotihuacan in precise degrees and angles over three km in distance. The layout of these crosses suggests it was there to work as a grid to the layout of Teotihuacan because they are laid out in a rectangular shape facing the Avenue of the Dead. The direction of the axes of the crosses don't point to an astronomical North and South direction but instead point to their own city's North. Numerology also has significance in the cross pecking because of the placement and amount of the holes, which sometimes count to 260 days, the length of the ritual calendrical cycle. Some of the pecked-cross circles also resemble an ancient Aztec game called, patolli. These pecked-cross circles can be found not just in Teotihuacan, but also throughout Mesoamerica. The ones found all share certain similarities. These include having the shape of two circles, one being inside of the other. They are all found pecked on the ground or onto rocks. They are all created with a small hammer-like device that produces cuplike markings that are 1 centimeter in diameter and 2 centimeters apart. They all have axes that are in line with the city structures of the region. Because they are aligned with the structures of the cities, they also align with the position of significant astronomical bodies.
The Ciudadela was completed during the Miccaotli phase, and the Pyramid of the Sun underwent a complex series of additions and renovations. The Great Compound was constructed across the Avenue of the Dead, west of Ciudadela. This was probably the city's marketplace. The existence of a large market in an urban center of this size is strong evidence of state organization. Teotihuacan was at that point simply too large and too complex to have been politically viable as a chiefdom.
The Ciudadela is a great enclosed plaza capable of holding 100,000 people. About 700,000 cubic meters (yards) of material were used to construct its buildings. Its central feature is the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, which was flanked by upper-class apartments. The entire compound was designed to overwhelm visitors.
More recently, Teotihuacan has become the center of controversy over Resplandor Teotihuacan, a massive light and sound spectacular installed to create a nighttime show for tourists.Prensa Latina, Protesters Demand Stop on Pyramid Project, Banderas News, February 2009.Prensa Latina, Tourists reject sound and light show at Mexican pyramids, TwoCircles.net, February 18, 2009. Critics explain that a large number of perforations for the project have caused fractures in stones and irreversible damage, while the project will have limited benefit.
In May 2021, the Secretariat of Culture announced that a construction crew had been bulldozing the northern outskirts of the city ruins in order to develop the land for an amusement park, despite three-months worth of orders from the government to stop work. The report detailed that at least 25 archeological structures were in immediate danger.
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