The Grand and Beautiful Teotihuacan

To begin my experience through Teotihuacan, I enter the location in GoogleMaps. The map brings me to a bird’s eye view of the gigantic Teotihuacan site. The first impression I get from the site is the astonishing size, through research and readings the size is described, but seeing it first hand, I come to the realization of the grandeur of the development.

The site is rectangular in shape, surrounded by the roads Piramides and Tuxpan intersecting at a round about. The Avenue of the Dead, depicted on the map as Calzada de Los Muertos, runs directly horizontally through the center of the rectangular development.

  

The Avenue of the Dead gets its name from the pyramid like structures that run along either side of it, resembling tombs. The grandeur of the avenue itself is something to note. The avenue is 40 meters wide and 5 kilometers long. Not only is this a long road, it is extremely wide as well.

Figure 1: Historyphoto101.com. "Avenue of the Dead." http://www.historylink102.com/mesoamerican/teotihuacan-1-avenue-dead.htm

This reiterates the grandeur of the city in many different ways. One way is that they have created a prescribed route to access all the tombs, temples and pyramids, therefore reproducing the ruling civilizations power over everyone living within the development. People navigate their way through Teotihuacan via this one main road, controlling the way in which people conduct their everyday lives within the city. Furthermore, this main route prescribes the access points in which people can enter the plaza and pyramids of the Sun and Moon (on google maps shown as the Plaza/Piramide Del Sol and Plaza/ Piramide de la Luna). This use of the prescribed routes, along with the single staircases leading up both pyramids, demonstrates the Aztec power of controlling social activity and navigation through the city.

Although there are many hypotheses about the use of the street of the dead complex such as the inference of a dual leadership represented by east west symmetrical architecture of the street or the sacred, residential and administrative uses of the navigation way, there is no concrete proof of what the reasoning for this construction was. Therefore I am able to conclude that although there is no published proof of the use of this large walled street way, I am able to make conclusions that the grandeur, size and walled structure of the street systematized living within the Teotihuacan site.

Figure 2: Destination360.c0m. "Avenue of the Dead". http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/mexico-city/avenue-of-the-dead

 The first stop along the Avenue of Dead I make is the Pyramid of the Sun. Approaching the Pyramid of the Sun, I am astounded at the grand size of the structure. Standing 738 meters across and 75 meters high, it is the third largest pyramid in the world. The pyramid appears to have 5 tiers, and a single grand stairway running up the middle of the pyramid. The construction of the pyramid is an estimated use of 3 million cubic tons of rubble. The ability for an ancient civilization to engineer such a large structure with lack of building tools demonstrates the ability to bring masses of people together for hands on construction work. Whether or not there was one or two ruling classes in the Aztec civilization, it is clear that there was a hierarchy of power in the area.

            This size and grandeur of the Pyramid of the Sun obviously reiterates power through the site. The ruling hierarchy, in this case the Aztecs, developed this large pyramid that is still to this day one of the largest in the world. Furthermore, this structure brings together the people, the earth and the divine through the echoing shape of the pyramid and the surrounding mountains located in the valley.  This is also evident in the natural building materials used for the pyramid blending with the earth, and the now grown over grass on the pyramid.

  

Figure 3: Humans are Free. "Pyramid of the Sun." http://humansarefree.com/2011/05/secret-tunnel-discovered-near-pyramid.html

         

Excavations of the Pyramid of the Sun revealed chambers that have seen numerous ancient fire and water rituals. This suggests that the Pyramid of the Sun may have been a place of emergence for which the humans came into the world. Although there is no factual proof that this was the function of the Pyramid of the Sun, it brings importance in connecting the Pyramids to the joining of people, the earth and the divine in the area. The Pyramids clearly played a key part in bringing people together for these ceremonies, connecting to the earth through fire/ water rituals and the divine in the sense that they are connecting with spirits through these rituals.

The second stop along the Avenue of the Dead is the Pyramid of the Moon, located at the Northern end of the Avenue. The Pyramid of the Moon is similar to the Pyramid of the Sun in the sense that there is one prescribed route into the Pyramid. This is evident in the slope in front of the staircase giving access to the Avenue of the Dead. This grand staircase was used to conduct ceremonies in honor of the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan (the goddess of water, fertility, the earth, and creation).

Figure 4: Travel-Notes.org. "Pyramid of the Moon." http://www.travel-notes.org/photos/moon_pyramid_tcan.html

The Pyramid of the Moon connects the people, the earth and the divine through the platform and sculpture dedicated to the Great Goddess. The clear use of this Pyramid to worship the goddess who represents water, fertility, the earth and creation, brings the historic population together. The grandeur of the pyramid and the spiritual ability to bring the people together, reiterates the wholesome cohesion of the Ancient Civilization.

One last point I noticed when touring the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon is the similarity between these two structures. This similarity brings a tied together feel for the Teotihuacan site. The similarities of the Pyramid structures along with the walled prescribed route of the Avenue of the Dead, all surrounded by Roads enclosing the entire site, brings a heavy sense of planned cohesion. The development of the site was clearly well planned with a thought out end product in mind.