Mexico - Day Ten: Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan - Pyramid of the Sun

Fits and starts of sleep, but after dawn I’m rewarded with colorful birds in the tree above the wasteland outside my window... and more than a dozen hot-air balloons gliding over Teotihuacan.  I wish I’d known that was an option!
       Marcella (Abuelita’s real name) has arranged for a guide.  When she offered, I was worried he might be in line with the hotel’s other disappointments, but he turns out to be good.  Alec (his name) arrives at 8:30 and we walk around the site’s fencing to the entrance.  He’s an official guide, as was his father for 35 years.
       On the way, Alec gives me some background.  From long before 250 B.C. a people whose name is not certain lived here in Teotihuacan.  Then a volcano wiped everything out.   After that came the Quiquilcas, who grew to number 250,000, making this the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas and at least the sixth largest city in the world in its time.  So many people eventually affected the environment to the point that problems arose.  Their solution?  A huge sacrifice to the gods:  3,000 poor souls, all volunteers.  After all, Teotihuacan is a Nahuatl (Aztec) name that means “the place where the gods were created”.
       It obviously didn’t work.  By the time the Aztecs rose, Teotihuacan was already in ruins.

Avenue of the Dead, with Pyramid of the Sun on the left and various temples on both sides

Quinquensen

The first building we see is the Temple of the Sun.  Unlike Chichén Itzá, it has only one entrance and one set of steps, on the west side.  Originally it was painted in blue (made from lapis lazuli), red from cinnabar and yellow from a local flower.  With those three primary colors, all the other colors could be made:  green, orange...

Tlaloc, the rain god

       The temple, a pyramid, is square, measuring 225 meters (738') per side, as big as the Giza Pyramid in Egypt but much lower.  It rises 65 meters high, plus 5 additional meters for the altar, for a total height of 70 m, a multiple of this people’s sacred number:  7.  Alec asks if I want to climb the 245 steps, or just the 48 steps of the Pyramid of the Moon.  I choose the moon.  Inside the Sun Pyramid, six meters down (20'), the archaeologists found a tunnel which winds its way, like a snake, to four tombs around a central space, forming the sacred flower, the quinqunsen.  Based on a workday of ten hours, it probably took 140 yrs to build this pyramid.
       Then we head down the Avenue of the Dead, so named because it was here that those 3,000 people were sacrificed, a few at each of the many temples on either side, each dedicated to a different god.  Some temples have old wall frescos with colors still visible, such as one on the east side that depicts a yellow puma with red decorations all around it and huge claws.
       At the far end of the Avenue stands the Pyramid of the Moon, which I have vowed to climb.  Each of the 48 steps is about 20 cm high (8"), higher than the ones of the Pyramid of the Sun.  Luckily for me, the last two flights of steps are off-limits and the ones above that are now non-existent.  The total height of this pyramid is 50 m (164') and it, too, is square:  150 m to a side (almost 500‘).  The surprise is that there are six other pyramids inside it, plus this outer one making seven, again the sacred number here.  The view from the platform is stunning, although a group of about twenty people are impervious to it, sitting crosslegged in a circle meditating near the upper steps.  A different kind of religion.  I’d rather look out over everything, including a mound to the east, covered with vegetation, which is probably yet another ruin in hiding.

Parrot

Owl

       We visit the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl, built around 450-500 A.D., again over an earlier building.  The name is made up of the Nahuatl words quetzalli (precious feather) and pāpālōtl (butterfly).   Its patio is surrounded by pillars carved with different birds:  parrots, of which there are many in the region, and owls, the symbol of protection at night.  Each figure stands for something.  Circles are water, triangles are the Earth, spirals the wind and flames the firs.  All four elements.  Even way back then.
       In the Palace of Jaguars, wall decorations include a jaguar with a conch shell to call the faithful.  And the colors are still very visible.  In addition, there are more symbols.  For instance, the five-pointed star is Venus, with a double snake tongue sticking out to show the duality of all:  sun/moon, life/death, light/darkness...
       There is even a Temple of the Plumed Conches (caracoles emplumados).  I think the "feather" part just looks like the folds on the open side of the shell, but what do I know?

       I buy a locally-made obsidian pendant (obsidian is native here) so I can have one souvenir of my trip and also look at the sun without burning my eyes (Alec taught me that little secret).  I’ll hang it in one of my windows back home.  And it only costs about a dollar.

Palace of Jaguars

Our tour done, Alec points me in the right direction and we part ways.  I’m so glad I added these ruins to the others in the Yucatán Peninsula.  Teotihuacan was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs, almost 1000 years prior to their era.  And now I can add it to the other ancient places I’ve visited.
       It’s a long walk back to the hotel, and breakfast.  Abuelita calls Edmundo while I eat, and he comes to drive me to the airport hotel, us conversing in Spanish all the long way, although there are parts I don’t get.  Another abrazo (hug) and I’m back in the 21st century.
       And that’s when the big problem starts.  When I ask the hotel’s concierge to confirm tomorrow morning’s return flight for me, he looks at my itinerary and announces I’m not leaving until the day after tomorrow.  A mistake has been made.  A trip to Terminal 2 doesn’t help; only a call to the 800 number will.  Too much noise on the airport phone, so back to the hotel on the shuttle.  From my room, I can’t get through.  After almost an hour on hold, I go down to ask the concierge for help.  And there, by the elevators, are some pay phones I hadn’t noticed.  And that works.  For a tidy sum, which I intend to have reimbursed, I have moved my ticket up to tomorrow morning.  Phew!
       All that’s left to do is a swim in the pool, a shower, a seafood dinner, and bed.  Tomorrow I’ll sleep in my own bed.

Temple of the Moon