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Teotihuacan was the first city to be built as a grid -
- 60 m high
- built over a natural spring
- "The present exterior, which would have once had a facing of smooth lime plaster, covers a slightly smaller earlier pyramid built over a massive mud-brick and rubble interior" (worldhistory.org).
- Used to be a small temple at the top
- A 100 m tunnel inside the pyramid goes from under the outside staircase to a chamber that was looted in the past but was probably a burial chamber/shrine.
- aligned with the sun to have no shadows on the spring equinox
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- Slightly smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun
- No chamber inside
- "The present exterior covers six progressively smaller pyramids" (worldhistory.org).
- the foundations contained many "dedicatory offerings" ex: "obsidian and greenstone felines and eagles and a single person"... "Offerings were also buried at each subsequent construction stage" and "There are also the remains of sacrificed animals including pumas, rattlesnakes, and birds of prey" (worldhistory.org)
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- built as a celebration of warfare.
- "decorated with sculptures of feathered-serpent and Tlaloc-like heads...once brightly painted in blue, red, yellow, and white"
- 7 levels
- "over 200 non-local males and females were sacrificed to commemorate its completion"
- "at the heart of the temple are two burial chambers which were emptied, perhaps by the residents of Teotihuacan 400 CE, but one remaining feathered-serpent baton suggests that the occupants were rulers" (worldhistory.org)
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Throughout Teotihuacan murals can be found.
For example on the walls of the Tepantitla district there is an elaborate mural "showing a figure often identified as the Great Goddess". On the mural there is also a tree as well as butterflies, flowers, and an inverted u-shape "found below the mountain-tree" similar to the "cave found at the Pyramid of the Sun". It is unknown if the murals were depicting real people or "generic representations that sought to unify a diverse population"
Kahn Academy -
"At its apogee (c. 500 CE), it encompassed some 8 square miles (20 square km) and supported a population estimated at 125,000–200,000, making it, at the time, one of the largest cities in the world" (Britannica)
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"possibly during an insurrection or a civil war. Although parts of the city were occupied after that event, much of it fell into ruin" (Britannica).
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