HAPPY 15TH ANNIVERSARY to THE INTREPID TOURIST: Sunday at the Pyramids—Notes from the Field

Teotihuacan, Mexico. Pyramid of the Sun.

Fifteen years ago, in April 2011, I launched The Intrepid Tourist. Its original purpose was to publish my accumulated travel writing, but soon expanded to include articles by friends and family. With a new post once a week since then, there are now more than 600 posts on the blog. And the total number of views is now more than a million. I thank all my guest posters and my dedicated readers who inspire me to keep it going.

This week’s post comes from a long-lost folder, recently discovered when cleaning out my file drawers.  Every trip leaves its impressions—of sights, sounds, smells, people, animals, places—all the things that make a place and an experience unique. In 1992, I was in Mexico, researching my book City of the Gods: Mexico’s Ancient City of Teotihuacan. The notes I found in the file folder are my first impressions after arriving at the site, a short distance outside Mexico City. None of the information in my notes appears in my book, which is about the pre-Aztec civilization that thrived at Teotihuacan nearly 2000 years ago. I’m not sure why I kept them. But as I read through my notes I am transported back to that day. They encapsulate what I like most about travel—the richness of all the little things that make each experience unique and memorable.

 Sunday at the Pyramids

(Notes from the field.)

Tent restaurants along the road—each with someone waving at passing cars—a woman in a red dress with a white apron.

Families picnicking on the grassy area along the fence around the pyramids—making a rope swing from tree, playing soccer, drinking beer.

Vendors on road by traffic circle with buckets of oranges, cactus fruit, large woody objects like coconuts.

Old man and child with donkey cart stopped in the shade, looking through the fence at the garden of our hotel—green lawns, white iron tables, flowers, children’s play equipment.

Dogs and puppies everywhere. Also, chickens, a family of ducks, sheep, goats, donkeys--all randomly grazing along side of road.

Wildflowers—little yellow and orange ones; tiny purple fireweed.

Whirling men on a pole seen from a distance.

Donkey drinking beer in front of a craft shop.

Man offering a maguey demonstration.

Children driving green and orange plastic go-carts on the cement plaza.

A parade—chanting with banners.

Parking lot jammed with cars and tour buses.

Young couples more interested in each other than the pyramids—laughing, touching, kissing.

Children racing up steps of pyramids and crawling through irrigation holes in walls.

Vendors slipping out of their pockets obsidian heads and knives, clay figures—“good price”, “very cheap”, “genuine”.  Also selling blankets, necklaces, plates, flutes, harps.  A constant repetitive trill of flutes and simple tunes on harps.

Japanese group posing for photo on Sun Pyramid, taking turns with each camera. “Say whiskey!”

Met an Australian couple pushing a stroller with two children—had been told to walk 1 km down wrong road. They didn’t speak Spanish. We were parked by a cactus garden on road leading to Sun Pyramid. Dick was taking photos of the hundreds of people going up the steps of the pyramid with his 500 mm lens on a tripod. [Richard Hewett was the photographer of my book.]

Passed by two soldiers leading girls on horses—later soldiers returned alone.

All day there was the sound of fireworks—later found out it was from a fiesta celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Streets in the town of San Juan de Teotihuacan decorated with strings of paper decorations.

Soccer game on field within the archeological zone.

For more about Teotihuacan read my post of Jan 29, 2018 about the fabulous exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

 

MEXICO'S ANCIENT CITY OF TEOTIHUACAN

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan

On the central plateau of Mexico, just outside Mexico City, lie the ruins of another great city, the ancient ceremonial complex of Teotihuacan.  At its center, the enormous 210 foot high Pyramid of the Sun towers over the city.  When its was built nearly 2,000 years ago, priests climbed its 248 steps to worship and study the heavens.

On top of the world! Actually, the Pyramid of the Sun.

I climbed those steep steps on my first visit to Teotihuacan, in 1991.  I looked out over the ruins of the ancient city and tried to imagine what it was like when it was bustling with commerce.  The city of Teotihuacan was established around 150 B.C.  At the height of its development, between A.D. 300 and 600, it covered an area of eight square miles and had a population of between 100,000 and 200,000 people.

Pyramid of the Moon

The most important religious structures are concentrated in the ceremonial center of the city and a long, stone walkway with buildings arranged symmetrically on either side was the main thoroughfare. The Aztecs, who came later, named it the Avenue of the Dead because the large mounds on either side looked to them like tombs. Actually, they were the ruins of ancient temples.At the end of the walkway is the Pyramid of the Moon (seen behind my head in the above picture, framed by the hills of Cerro Gordo, which was believed to be the home of the Storm God and was sacred in Teotihuacan times.) The stepped construction of the Pyramid of the Moon is known as talud-tablero, a style developed at Teotihuacan.

View from top of the Pyramid of the Sun

The Pyramid of the Sun faces west and looks across the Avenue of the Dead. It is situated so that its front faces exactly the point on the horizon where the sun sets on the days when it is at its highest point of the year. Because Teotihuacan is south of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun is directly overhead twice a year, on May 19 and July 25.

Fresco from the Palace of the Jaguars. 

Today the predominant color of Teotihuacan is of natural stone.  But long ago, it was a riot of color. Nearly every structure in the ancient city was brightly painted on the outside, and many had beautiful paintings on the inside walls as well. Paint was made from natural dyes and applied directly onto wet plaster.  Red, which signified blood and eternal life, was a predominant color.  Black represented shadows and the underworld. In the fresco above, curved designs emerging from the figures' mouths indicate that they are speaking or singing.

Votive Figurine (reproduction)

Thousands of handmade clay figures just a few inches high have been found in the excavations at Teotihuacan.  Most of these tiny figures have been found in the places where people lived.  It is believed that they were used as part of daily household rituals.  Copies of these figurines are found in the local tourist shops.

The Teotihuacan culture in central Mexico collapsed in the 8th Century A.D.  It was followed first by the Toltecs, who built their capital at Tula, and then the Aztecs, whose capital was Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City.)  During centuries of disuse, what was left of the buildings at Teotihuacan gradually fell down and became overgrown with weeds.  Their colorful murals faded and disintegrated with exposure to the weather.  Objects that had been left behind were broken or buried.  What we see today only hints at the greatness that was Teotihuacan.

Coatlicue (Museum of Anthropology)

Note: Today, like most of the other ancient sites in Mexico, the pyramids of Teotihuacan are closed to climbing by tourists, but you can still visit the surrounding grounds and appreciate the richness of the culture. You can also view many of the treasures of Teotihucan–giant sculptures, masks, pottery, jewelry and more--in the wonderful Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

My visit to Teotihuacan in 1991 inspired a second trip when I went to research my book City of the Gods: Mexico’s Ancient city of Teotihuacan (Clarion, 1994), illustrated with photographs by Richard Hewett. The pictures on this blog are mine from the first trip.