The origins of Teotihuacan are rooted in both opportunity and disruption.
Around the first centuries BCE, populations in the Basin of Mexico began to concentrate in the northeastern valley, possibly driven by volcanic eruptions and environmental changes elsewhere in the region. Fertile soils, access to obsidian resources, and strategic trade routes made the area attractive for settlement. Over time, these early communities coalesced into a single urban entity that grew rapidly in size and influence. By around the first century CE, Teotihuacan had become one of the largest cities in the world, with an estimated population that may have exceeded one hundred thousand inhabitants.What makes Teotihuacan remarkable is not only its size but its deliberate urban design. The city was laid out according to a strict grid, oriented slightly east of true north, possibly aligned with astronomical or sacred considerations. At its heart ran the Avenue of the Dead, a wide ceremonial boulevard stretching for several kilometers and linking the city’s most important monuments. This avenue organized space and movement, guiding both daily life and ritual processions through a landscape charged with symbolic meaning. The precision of the city’s layout suggests centralized planning and a shared cosmological framework that shaped how inhabitants understood their place in the universe.
Dominating the Avenue of the Dead are Teotihuacan’s most iconic structures, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun, one of the largest pyramids ever built in the ancient world, rises in massive tiers that command the surrounding plain. Constructed primarily from adobe and volcanic stone, it was once covered in bright plaster and painted surfaces, transforming it into a vivid focal point of the city. Beneath the pyramid lies a natural cave that appears to have been modified and ritualized, reinforcing interpretations that the structure was associated with creation myths, fertility, and the sacred origins of life. shutdown123