Here it is expressed in its successive and complementary aspects: the dry and obsessive geometry of the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon contrasts with the sculpted and the painted decor of an exceptional richness of the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent. Criterion iii : Much larger than the narrow zone of the ceremonial center, the archaeological site of Teotihuacan corresponds to a city of at least 25, inhabitants.
Teotihuacan and its valley bear unique testimony on the pre-urban structures of ancient Mexico. Criterion iv : Lining the immense Avenue of the Dead, the unique group of sacred monuments and places of worship in Teotihuacan the Pyramids of the Sun, the Moon and Quetzalcoatl and the Palaces of Quetzalmariposa, the Jaguars, of Yayahuala and others constitutes an outstanding example of a pre-Columbian ceremonial center.
Criterion vi : Following the destruction and abandonment of the city towards A. According to writings from the 16th century, the sacrifices practiced by Moctezuma every twenty days on the site attested to the persistence of beliefs, which made Teotihuacan a sacred place of exceptional value. The Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan fully preserves its monumentality, urban design and artistic wealth, as well as the relationship of the architectural structures with the natural environment, including its setting in the landscape.
This is due to the maintenance, conservation and permanent protection the site has received. However, natural factors like rain, wind and solar radiation constantly affect the site and its elements, and are considered to be the most important threat. Not all conservation attempts in the past were successful and some elements of the site were negatively affected by the use of inadequate materials e.
This highlights the need for conservation guidelines for interventions, as requested by the World Heritage Committee in its 36th session , as well as for plans for preventive conservation and monitoring at the site. A further serious threat is the development pressure around the site that is constantly on the rise. Located 48 km northeast of Mexico City, Teotihuacan is one the archaeological sites with the longest history of exploration in Mexico.
The first surveys date from , and the first excavations from Certain monuments were restored from to , such as the Pyramid of the Sun, for which its discoverer Leopoldo Batres arbitrarily reconstituted a fifth tier. Since , archaeological research has been coordinated by the National Institute of Anthropology and History INAH , which, while encouraging spectacular discoveries Palacio de Quetzalmariposa, the cave under the Pyramid of the Sun , has instigated a more rigorous policy concerning identification and supervision of excavations in the immediate environs of the ceremonial zone.
While some of the earlier reconstruction work, dating from the early years of the last century, is questionable in contemporary terms, it may be considered to have a historicity of its own now. In general terms, it can be said that the condition of authenticity of the expressions of the Outstanding Universal Values of Teotihuacan, which can be found in its urban layout, monuments and art, has been preserved until today.
The law establishes public ownership of all archaeological properties, even if these are situated on privately owned lands. The presidential decrees of and that declared the Archaeological Monuments Zone at Teotihuacan were superseded by a new decree in , which defined two additional protective zones B and C and augmented the protected area to a total of more than ha.
To be able to extend the site's buffer zone even further, land surrounding the archaeological zone was acquired over the last decade. Recently, important advances were made in the negotiations with more land owners in order to extend the zone. There were public buildings, administrative quarters, and various residential areas. People from the Maya, Oaxaca and Gulf Coast areas lived in separate districts of the city. Although they were living far from their homelands, they often retained many elements of the own culture.
The main pyramids are the metre-high Pyramid of the Sun, with a lateral length of metres, and the metre-high Pyramid of the Moon at the northern end of the two kilometre-long Avenue of the Dead. The southern end of the ensemble, of which only a fraction has been excavated and studied, is dominated by what the Spaniards called the "Citadel", containing the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, and the Rain God, Tlaloc, which is decorated with sculptured heads of these divinities.
There is definite agreement, however, about their iconography. The same deities can be found again with the Aztecs. But he also embodies the destructive power of rain and water in the form of thunderstorms and floods. Quetzalcoatl is the rattlesnake with the feathers of the quetzal bird.
The Feathered Serpent was responsible for the fertility of the earth and for life itself. Huehueteotl, the Old God, who was responsible for fire and was worshipped primarily in the private sphere. He was the patron saint of house and hearth. Huehueteotl is represented sitting cross-legged, with a wrinkled face and a brazier or coal pan on his head.
The seat of government was most likely located at different places: in the monumental Xalla building compound located to the north of the Pyramid of the Sun and in the living quarters of the Citadel flanking the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent.
After this act of destruction the subsequent rulers built their seat of government right above the "Avenue of the Dead". This contrasts sharply with the concomitant Maya civilization, the dynastic history of which is well-known: they erected steles with inscriptions that glorified their rule and recorded the important events of their lives on them.
Dig sites sloshed over with water; a torrent of mud and debris coursed past rows of souvenir stands at the main entrance. He is fond of saying that there are few living humans who know the place as intimately as he does. Nothing: only darkness. So he tied a line of heavy rope around his waist and, with several colleagues holding onto the other end, he descended into the murk. He theorized that he was now looking at a kind of mirror tunnel, leading to a subterranean chamber beneath the Temple of the Plumed Serpent.
If he was correct, it would be a find of stunning proportions—the type of achievement that can make a career. You have to have a clear hypothesis, and you have to get approval.
By , the digital map was complete. The hole that had appeared during the storms was not the actual entrance; that lay a few yards back, and it had apparently been intentionally sealed with large boulders nearly 2, years ago.
The city lies in a basin at the southernmost edge of the Mexican Plateau, an undulating landmass that forms the spine of modern-day Mexico. Inside the basin the climate is mild, the land riven by streams and rivers—ideal conditions for farming and raising livestock. Some historians have theorized that its founders were refugees driven north by the eruption of a volcano. Others have speculated that they were Totonacs, a tribe from the east.
Whatever the case, the Teotihuacanos, as they are now known, proved themselves to be skilled urban planners. She is far from the only historian to see the city as large-scale metaphor.
Michael Coe, an archaeologist at Yale, argued in the s that individual structures might be representations of the emergence of humankind out of a vast and tumultuous sea. As is in Genesis, Mesoamericans of the time are thought to have envisioned the world as being born from complete darkness, in this case aqueous.
Recent evidence suggests that the religion practiced in these pyramids bore a resemblance to the religion practiced in the contemporaneous Mayan cities of Tikal and El Mirador, hundreds of miles to the southeast: the worshiping of the sun and moon and stars; the veneration of a Quetzalcoatl-like plumed serpent; the frequent occurrence, in painting and sculpture, of a jaguar that doubles as deity and protector of men. Between A. Locals harvested beans, avocados, peppers and squash on fields raised in the middle of shallow lakes and swampland—a technique known as chinampa —and kept chickens and turkeys.
Cotton came in from the Pacific Coast, ceramics from Veracruz. Residential neighborhoods sprang up in concentric circles around the city center, eventually comprising thousands of individual family dwellings, not dissimilar to single-story apartments, that together may have housed , people.
There were likely Mayan neighborhoods, and Zapotec ones.
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