Unesco World Heritage Site

Location

Country Mexico

Coordinates:

19 ° 41′33 ″ N 98 ° 50′38 ″ W

Teotihuacán or Teotihuacan

In Nahuatl: Teōtihuācan,

('' Place where men become gods or City of the gods '') or also Teo uacan (in Nahuatl: 'City of the sun') It is the name given to what was one of the largest pre-Hispanic cities in Mesoamerica.

The place name is of Nahuatl origin and was used by the Mexica to identify this city built by a civilization before them and which was already in ruins when the Mexica saw it for the first time.

To date, the name given by its original inhabitants is unknown. The remains of the city are located northeast of the Valley of Mexico, in the municipalities of Teotihuacán and San Martín de las Pirámides (State of Mexico), approximately 78 kilometers away from the center of Mexico City.

The area of ​​archaeological monuments was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987.

The origins of Teotihuacán are still the object of investigation among specialists.

Around the beginning of the Christian era, Teotihuacán was a village that gained importance as a cult center in the Anahuac basin. The first major constructions come from that time, as the excavations in the Pyramid of the Moon show.

The city's heyday took place during the Classic Period (3rd-7th centuries AD).

At that stage, the city was an important commercial and political node that reached an area of ​​almost 21 km2, with a population of 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants.

The influence of Teotihuacán was felt by all parts of Mesoamerica, as shown by the discoveries in cities such as Tikal and Monte Albán, among other sites that had an important relationship with the Teotihuacans.

The decline of the city occurred in the 7th century, in a context marked by political instability, internal rebellions and climatic changes that caused a collapse in the North of Mesoamerica. Most of the city's population was dispersed to various localities in the basin of Mexico.

The ethnic identity of the first inhabitants of Teotihuacán is unknown. Among the candidates are the Totonacos, the Nahuas and the Ottoman-speaking peoples, particularly the Otomi.

The most recent hypotheses suggest that Teotihuacán was a cosmopolitan city in whose flourishing groups of diverse ethnic origin were involved, as shown by the discoveries in the Zapotec neighborhood of the city and the presence of objects from other regions of Mesoamerica, especially from the Gulf region and the Mayan area.

Teotihuacán has been a source of interest for societies after the decline of the Teotihuacán culture in Mesoamerica. Its ruins have been explored since pre-Hispanic times, among others, by the Toltecs and the Mexicas.

The discovery of Teotihuacan objects in the archaeological sites of Tula and the Templo Mayor de México-Tenochtitlan confirms this.

In post-classical Nahua mythology, the city appears as the scene of fundamental myths such as the legend of the Suns of the Mexicas.

Currently, the remains of Teotihuacán constitute the area of ​​archaeological monuments with the highest influx of tourists in Mexico, above Chichén Itzá, El Tajín and Monte Albán. The archaeological excavations in Teotihuacán continue to this day, and have resulted in a gradual increase in the quality and quantity of the knowledge we have about it.