29 Facts About Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas, namely Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon.

Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and its vibrant, well-preserved murals.

Teotihuacan began as a religious center in the Mexican Highlands around the first century CE.

Teotihuacan was home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate the large population.

The term Teotihuacan is used to refer to the whole civilization and cultural complex associated with the site.

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From 100 BCE to 750 CE, Teotihuacan evolved into a huge urban and administrative center with cultural influences throughout the broader Mesoamerica region.

Early history of Teotihuacan is quite mysterious, and the origin of its founders is uncertain.

Teotihuacan was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs, almost 1000 years prior to their epoch.

The builders of Teotihuacan took advantage of the geography in the Basin of Mexico.

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.

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.

Teotihuacan is known for producing a great number of obsidian artifacts.

Sudden destruction of Teotihuacan was common for Mesoamerican city-states of the Classic and Epi-Classic period.

Archeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, and while the predominant language or languages used in Teotihuacan have been lost to history, Totonac and Nahua, early forms of which were spoken by the Aztecs, seem to be highly plausible.

In 2001, Terrence Kaufman presented linguistic evidence suggesting that an important ethnic group in Teotihuacan was of Totonacan or Mixe–Zoquean linguistic affiliation.

Teotihuacan 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.

Teotihuacan compounds show evidence of being segregated into three classes: high elites, intermediate elies, and the laboring class.

Teotihuacan had one of the largest, or perhaps had the largest, population of any city in the Basin of Mexico during its occupation.

Teotihuacan was a large pre-historic city that underwent massive population growth and sustained it over most of the city's occupancy.

Teotihuacan had two other neighborhoods that prominently depicted this multiethnic city picture.

Much of the findings in Teotihuacan suggest that the inhabitants had their own writing style.

Today, Teotihuacan is one of the most noted archeological attractions in Mexico.

The site of Teotihuacan was the first to be expropriated for the national patrimony under the Law of Monuments, giving jurisdiction under legislation for the Mexican state to take control.

Teotihuacan decided initially to elaborate on a clear hypothesis and to obtain approval.

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.

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City of Teotihuacan was characterized by large and imposing buildings, which included, apart from the complexes of houses, temples, large squares, stadiums, and palaces of the rulers, nobles, and priests.

The main monuments of the city of Teotihuacan are connected to each other by a central road of 45 meters wide and a length of 2 kilometers, called "Avenue of the Dead ", because it is believed to have been paved with tombs.

Teotihuacan was at that point simply too large and too complex to have been politically viable as a chiefdom.

The seizure of the land came a week after the International Council on Monuments and Sites warned that Teotihuacan was at risk of losing its UNESCO World Heritage designation.