En route…

At the time of Teotihuacan’s zenith (sometime around 500AD) it was the sixth largest city in the world, and by far the largest in the Americas. Teotihuacan’s decline was originally thought to have been from invasion from outsiders but more recent excavations of the site have revealed that it was only the temples and government buildings that showed signs of burning and pillaging, and the new hypothesis is that it was probably internal conflict that eventually brought the city down.

En route pour Teotihuacan :

Note the worker mowing the lawn to the far right of the photo

Temple of the Moon up ahead

Temple of the Sun; a bit of a misnomer as it is now thought to be a temple to the rain god

“Pay credit card, no problem!” rang through the site. It was very funny to see the vendor holding his machine up hoping to catch a signal for the credit card payment. It did work in the end.

From the top of Temple of the Sun with a view of the Road of the Dead and the Temple of the Moon

There used to be a canal that was diverted through the city to provide water to its inhabitants; now the only water in sight is from the vendors, yelling out various prices for different sizes of agua fria. It was dry, it was hot, it was intense. It was Teotihuacan.

People arriving en masse to the Temple of the Moon

The whole site from the top of Temple of the Moon

Having seen many a joyous schoolchild crawl through the ancient gutter systems, Julien gave it a try himself and barely made it through.