Pyramids of Teotihuacan Explained

Throughout the pre-Columbian civilizations that flourished in what is now modern-day Mexico, many great cities developed over 3,000 years. Among them, Teotihuacan stands out as the most remarkable, the largest, most advanced, and best-planned city of ancient Mexico. Nestled on the outskirts of present-day Mexico City, this vast metropolis housed over 200,000 inhabitants. At its peak, Teotihuacan reached its height around the year 400, when it thrived with large population and monumental constructions. It spanned 20 square kilometers, making it the largest urban area on the continent at the time. Teotihuacan's culture was the synthesis of all the Mesoamerican traditions that came before it. Three key elements define the planning of the city. A central axis marked by the causeway that is the so-called Avenue of the Dead, the main precinct at the end of the axis, which contains the space and the people, and a visual ending point, which is the Great Temple itself, the so-called Pyramid of the Moon. This visual ending point is inviting the user transiting through the causeway to approach and gather in the central space that is the precinct. This is a city defined by axes, which are in function of the architectural components, the structures that contain the space. The central causeway has the function of Axis Mundi, the symbolic axis that governs the layout of the entire city, but which also operates vertically, as you move through the city ascending and descending through these sunken plazas located along the causeway. If we take a look at the plan of the city, we begin to see orthogonal axes formed by secondary streets that intersect the main causeway. But even though the design of the city is based on orthogonal axes and lines, the plan is not a simple grid as you might expect from a systematically organized ancient city. The plan of Teotihuacan consists of a large number of square and rectangular precincts and buildings of varying sizes, all aligned to the same orientation. This organized orthogonal system is oriented about 15 degrees east of north. The Avenue of the Dead runs over 4 kilometers from south to north, measuring about 40 meters in width, and is lined with minor temples, all of them specifically proportioned to emphasize the large scale of the two great temples, the so-called Pyramid of the Sun to the right and the Pyramid of the Moon at the end of the avenue. The architecture of these minor temples follows the same principle that you find in most ancient cities throughout Mesoamerica, the talud-tablero profile. The talud is a sloping plane that contains the mass of the building and distributes the thrust of the upper platforms, while the tablero is a frieze of random stones, framed by plain moldings. It's likely that the talud-tablero system originated in Teotihuacan, and then its use extended with different variations to other regions of Mesoamerica, such as the Maya and Oaxaca. In addition to the main precinct dominated by the Pyramid of the Moon, it was important to establish another contention space in the opposite side of the city, to have people engage in trade and other civic activities without involving in the main ceremonial space. Thus, the so-called Citadel was created at the south of the complex, a huge square precinct contained by a great surrounding platform upon which stand 15 small pyramids. At the center is a stepped pyramid known as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, giving origin to a new perpendicular axis, reaching the marketplace on the other side of the causeway. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl is a great structure composed of six platforms. Its base is a square of 65 by 65 meters. Although it isn't as large as the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, it is distinguished by its unique ornamentation. Each talud is decorated with the feathered body of the serpent, while on each tablero, heads of Quetzalcoatl emerge, alternating with heads of Tlaloc, god of the rain. You can still see traces of color in these representations. In the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, a colorful reconstruction gives you an idea of how the surface of this building may have appeared in its prime. A snake emerging from the earth, like a plant sprouting from the soil, symbolizes the cycle of agriculture, and the god of rain completes this vision, providing the water that makes this possible. Like all other civilizations in the region, Teotihuacan was a city that relied on agriculture, and needed water to grow. There's a nearby river known today as Río San Juan, whose course was altered by these people to integrate it into the urban plan of the city. The river was redirected to a line orthogonally, crossing perpendicular to the central axis of the The architecture of Teotihuacan echoes the landscape. The entire city is organized to play with the surrounding mountains. In our modern world, we are used to walking through cities designed with linear perspective, where the volumes around us form lines that converge in a vanishing point at the horizon. Vertical and horizontal lines create a sense of three-dimensionality in space, and corners vertically reveal new city elements. This applies not just to cities, but also to buildings. Even if a building has a very horizontal design, you experience it vertically. It has always worked this way, from the ancient temples of Egypt to the modern Mexico City. But in the ancient cultures of Mexico, cities were laid out in an entirely different way. Although they used axes and visual ending points, their architecture was not based on linear perspective. Instead, it was an architecture of horizons, which creates a dialogue between architecture and nature. There are two protagonists in this dialogue, platforms and mountains, which rhythmically appear and disappear from view. As you arrive at the Avenue of the Dead, when you walk on the axis towards the Pyramid of the Moon, you will notice that the protagonist here is not actually the pyramid, but the sacred mountain in the distance, beyond the pyramid. And the contour of the mountain wraps both of the pyramids and the whole city, as nature takes on the central role. As you continue along the causeway, you'll encounter the sunken plazas that you must cross. You descend stairs, and as you go forward, the mountains and buildings disappear. Everything is hidden to you, and shown again from a new perspective once you ascend the next set of stairs. Each time you climb up a set of stairs, you feel the sky very close, as nothing else is visible to you other than the edge of the top step. Once you reach the top, a new perspective is shown. As you keep walking and approaching the first main construction, the Pyramid of the Sun, you realize that the mountain is gradually losing its importance, giving in to the Pyramid of the Sun up until this point, where they are both reaching the same horizontal level. As you get closer, the Pyramid of the Sun grows larger, while the mountain behind begins to shrink and takes a backseat. The Pyramid of the Sun is one of the largest structures ever built in pre-Columbian times. It is surrounded on three of its sides by a massive platform, creating a vast precinct that presides the Great Temple. Facing the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramid is oriented west, toward the direction where the Sun sets, hence its name. Like most stepped pyramids in Mesoamerica, the Pyramids of Teotihuacan feature a prominent front facade with a large staircase leading to the summit. The Pyramid of the Sun, like most other temples, used to have a small sanctuary on the top, where rituals and ceremonies were performed. Originally, the temple's surface did not have the grey stone appearance that we see today. It was covered with stucco and painted with vivid colors, red being the dominant color. In fact, some temples still preserve remnants of this stucco layer, which was then painted. The base of the Pyramid of the Sun is about the same size as the base of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, about 230 meters on each side. However, the Pyramid of the Sun stands at 66 meters tall, less than half the height of the Pyramid of Cheops, which reaches 146 meters. But because of the horizontal perspective in Mesoamerican cities, climbing these pyramids evokes a sense of reaching the sky, no matter their height. Here you can see me, climbing to the top of a very small pyramid in Yucatan, and as you can see, it doesn't seem small at all as you climb it. It's like you're climbing right to the sky. As you leave the Pyramid of the Sun behind and continue walking towards the Pyramid of the Moon, the mountain's silhouette still frames the Pyramid of the Moon. But the closer you get, the mountain's presence diminishes, and the Moon Pyramid gradually asserts its dominance. By the time you reach the main precinct, the mountain completely disappears from view, leaving the Pyramid of the Moon as the sole focal point, now dominating the purview of the precinct. The Pyramid of the Moon is considerably smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, measuring 130 meters on each side and reaching a height of 43 meters. But because of its position in relation with the city, it's the most important temple in the complex. Most great temples in Mesoamerica were constructed in different phases. The original structure was built and used for some decades, and then encased in a new layer. A process repeated seven times to form the pyramid we see today. This one too had a sanctuary at its summit, where ceremonies were performed. Climbing to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon reveals the deeper relationship between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Great Mountain beyond. Up here, you can clearly see how the silhouette of the mountain follows exactly the silhouette of the pyramid. You'll also immediately understand by looking at the rest of the mountains at the end of the axis, why the city was oriented not precisely to the north, but offset just a few degrees from north. In addition to the temples and palaces lining the Avenue of the Dead, Teotihuacan had over 2,000 residential complexes, where its ancient inhabitants lived and thrived. Many of these complexes still preserve wall paintings that showcase the artistry of these people. The most notable among these complexes is the Palace of Quetzalpapaloc, or Feathered Butterfly, which provides insight into the design principles used in residential architecture, as central courtyard was the main nucleus that distributed the spaces. This reflects an architecture of exteriors, as life back then was largely outdoors. Surrounding the courtyard are carved pillars depicting the feathered butterfly, which gives name to this small complex. There are certain parts of the city where you can observe that also minor temples and residential complexes were often built over previously constructed layers. Like many Mesoamerican cultures, the people of Teotihuacan viewed life and time as inherently cyclical. Their belief in cycles of renewal and transformation influenced their architectural practices. Building new layers on top of existing structures symbolized the rebirth and continuity of life, aligning with their cyclic calendar and worldview. And in the case of great temples like the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, these successive layers also made them more imposing and visible, reinforcing the authority of priests and rulers while elevating the status of the city. Taller structures reflected a symbolic approach to the sky and the divine. As you walk through the causeway, the precincts, and the secondary axes, you'll constantly notice these alignments between distant elements such as mountains or buildings and nearby platforms or constructions. This interplays what I mean when I say that this is an architecture of horizons. These deliberate alignments between the architectural components and the elements of the site, such as the mountains. This architecture of horizons can be observed in many ancient cities across Mexico, but Teotihuacan stands out as the most spectacular due to its monumental scale and magnificence. Without this architectural framework to recreate and emphasize it, the surrounding landscape would remain just that, a landscape. It's rare to find a city as perfectly attuned to its natural context as Teotihuacan, but these pre-Columbian cities of remind me a lot of the architecture of ancient Greece. The Greeks also had this great connection between their cities and their site. On a smaller degree, you can also find these kinds of alignments with the mountains in Greek cities. You could also argue that there's a notable similarity to the architecture of ancient Egypt in that many of the elements carved in stone are trying to replicate nature. There's also orthogonal forms everywhere. And of course the pyramids. Even though much less impressive than those in Egypt in terms of scale and construction techniques, the structural principle is very similar in that the heavy stuff is in the bottom, and as the structure rises, the abundance of material decreases. But despite these similarities, Egyptian pyramids were built for a completely different purpose, reflecting distinct worldviews. Egyptian pyramids were tombs, while pre-Columbian pyramids in Mesoamerica functioned as ceremonial temples. Regardless of Egyptian pyramids being much more impressive constructions, the urban design of Teotihuacan rivals, if not surpasses, the level of refinement found in the urban design of Egyptian cities. The city of Teotihuacan was destroyed and then abandoned by its inhabitants around the 8th century. All the names and meanings we associate with the city and the buildings today are names in the language of the Aztecs, who found the deserted metropolis and revered it as a sacred site. We don't know who built this city, we don't know their name, their language, we don't even know the original name of the city. Yet its monumental scale, sophisticated organization, and architectural grandeur were so extraordinary that the Aztecs, the last civilization of pre-Hispanic Mexico, believed it to be the work of gods, naming it Teotihuacan, the city of the gods. I hope you learned and enjoyed, please like this video and subscribe to my channel, and I will leave below my video of Chichen Itza in case you're interested. Thanks, and I'll see you soon in the next episode.