A Postcard from the Teotihuacan Pyramids

Only an hour outside of Mexico City lies the Teotihuacan Pyramids, an impressive and vast archaeological complex.

On the bus ride there, we passed giant cactuses and colourful favelas littering the green rolling mountains like discarded boxes of pastel smarties on a grassy lawn.

We saw the pyramid before we had even entered the site. It loomed up before us like a breaching whale before an insignificant rowboat. I don’t know if I was quite prepared for the enormity of it. The Pyramid of the Sun is one of the largest structures of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, rising 216 feet from the ground and measuring 720 by 760 feet at the base. The coarse red rock it is constructed out of is volcanic and is built in a talud-tablero style, meaning that rather than sweeping up continuously, it rises up in a series of steps and platforms.

We joined tourists and touts below, circling like ants around their nests. Everywhere I looked, there was someone trying to sell me something, be it Aztec patterned scarves and jewelry, ornaments galore, or the most obnoxious little instrument I ever encountered. When blown, it makes either the sound of a growling jaguar or a piercing bird call. I didn’t half jump out of my skin the first time I heard it right behind me! Who am I kidding? I jumped out of my skin every time! I later overheard from a tour guide that these would have been used back at the time of the pyramids, which made them seem slightly less annoying, but only slightly. It was the theme tune of the day.

I first thought that these were Aztec pyramids when, in fact, they were only discovered by the Aztecs centuries after the city was abandoned. The names we now know the sites by are given to them by the Aztecs and the original names are unknown. The Teotihuacan society was a Meso-American indigenous civilization predating both the Maya and the Aztecs.

The pyramid of the sun is the largest of the two pyramids that you see when you first enter. At the top of the Pyramid, it is thought there was once a great temple and that the Pyramid served as a place of worship. But the smaller pyramid of the moon had a more shocking purpose. The pyramid of the moon is believed to have been used for rituals of sacrifice of both animals and humans. It is at the end of the Avenue of the Dead and stands proudly as a stage. Sacrificial victims are also buried within the layers of the pyramids. Elaborate religious ceremonies like this played an important role, as it was the Priests who governed the City.

I can only imagine the electricity and the eruption of the noise of the masses in the city below. We found that when we clapped our hands at the base of the structures; it caused an incredible echo. Imagine the eco of a thousand hands.

The Pyramid of the moon is flanked by lesser pyramids and a series of platforms and faces an area called the Avenue of the Dead, once thought to be lined with tombs. Here lays a little gem of ancient rock art depicting a jaguar with enormous claws. The thought of jaguars stalking these grounds is both a thrilling and terrifying thought.

I felt so small here. Only a tiny grain in the sands of time.

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This story was orginally published on Medium

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