Posts Tagged With: Teotihuacan

Saving the best for last, our last day in Mexico City will be heading out into the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. Once again, the convenience of the public transport system is very impressive, as all we had to do was hop off at the metro station named “L’Autobuse Norte”, or literally, North Bus Stop. There, just follow the big signs for the bus company that’d take you there. Simple, efficient, awesome! The cool part about this is that taking buses in Mexico is extremely great!!! The buses are clean, the roads are nice and the seats are soo comfy!! None of that gross throwing up and smoking without opening the window nonsense.

At first we were afraid we wouldn’t know where to get off, but once we got there you won’t be able to miss it….The pyramids are SO massive in scale, you can see it from afar.

History Lesson: Teotihuacan is the centre of people that settled in the area between 100BC – 600AD. The whole complex consists of a road named Avenue of the Dead (cool huh?), which almost points perfectly to the North/South poles. The avenue leads north to a massive plaza and the Moon Pyramid which is where the locals gather. Further south, there is a larger Sun Pyramid where priests and royalty reside to perform worships and sacrifices. When other groups of people arrived into the area a couple hundred years later, a lot of their worship and architecture was borrowed from this site.

Like any ruins of great civilizations of old, it is hard to describe the whole complex. In sheer size, it is tremendous as the Sun Pyramid is third largest pyramid in the world. In terms of design, the whole place is rock solid even after so many years, and aesthetically it radiates a sense of mystery like nothing we’ve seen. Just sitting atop the pyramids, looking down the Avenue of the Dead, you can’t help but imagine all the history that this place holds.

And walking down the Avenue to the southern most part, is another large square with a third, pyramid which housed the government of the era, and the large open space was also used as a market for trade. As this was the capital of a vast empire, it needed to sustain trade with other groups of people and this is where they would meet. Walking back towards the north, one can see the Moon Pyramid squarely in your sights the whole time. That walk, was definitely an intimidating one.

Heading back to town, we wanted to visit one last museum before we left Mexico City (there are SO many museums here), but unfortunately it closes at 5:30pm and we were a bit too late. The plaza outside the museum was lively, and families and friends were gathering around as it seems like everyone is beginning their Christmas celebrations!! We grabbed dinner at a local restaurant close to the museum, ordering random things on the menu which were all quite good! Mexican food is really delicious, we just need to figure out what we’re ordering =)

At night, the festivities have begun at the central market square! The Christmas lights were up, and a temporary skating rink was put up to the joys of local kids wanting to skate (there was a line-up to get in!). A set of bleachers were put up for some show that was going on with people doing trick jumps in their snowmobiles! So cool!!! Despite no snow, the holiday spirit is definitely in the air!!