Teotl means "God" in the Aztec language - a strange linguistic coincidence, because there is no relationship with the word behind "theology" or "theodicy".
Teotihuacán is often interpreted as "the place where the gods were born".
According to the Aztec creation myth, at least two of them ended their existence here: They sacrificed themselves to set the sun in motion and thus start the current fifth age.
Ulf von Rauchhaupt
Responsible for the “Science” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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Where else could this have happened? Teotihuacán is magical, even today. Forty kilometers northeast of the concrete and asphalt jungle of Mexico City, the site extends over an agricultural landscape surrounded by hills. Two enormous pyramids attract all the visitors' first glances. The "Pyramid of the Moon", the vanishing point of a megalomaniac avenue aligned with the course of the sun, is 43 meters high and almost as tall as the two main temples in Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire that has now disappeared under the city center of Mexico City. The “pyramid of the sun”, on the other hand, has the same footprint, even if only half the height of the Great Pyramid.
The other wonders of Teotihuacán are only revealed by the second and third glance: stone-framed platforms of special numbers as well as the foundation walls of palaces and more than two thousand apartment buildings with somewhat simpler furnishings, which would still be considered lavish to luxurious in most parts of the world. This city must have been immeasurably rich, but not in the sense that Rome was or London is today. Rather, it offered urbanity without cramping. Its 130,000 inhabitants - an enormous number for pre-industrial cities - spread over more than twenty square kilometers of built-up area. This makes Teotihuacán the geographically largest city in pre-Columbian America.In Tenochtitlán, on the other hand, twice as many people crowded into barely half the space - even though the Aztec metropolis was by far the most homely city on the planet until it was conquered by the Spaniards five hundred years ago. But that was hardly the reason why the Aztecs admired Tenochtilán.
Remains of victims
Because no, this city was not built or even inhabited by the Aztecs. Not even from the Toltecs, as archaeologists initially believed. They were members of another important Mesoamerican culture that flourished in the tenth to twelfth centuries and had its center a little further north. In fact, Teotihuacán is a thousand years older. The three great pyramids - besides those of the sun and moon there is also the ornate "pyramid of the plumed serpent" - were built in the late second century AD, and around 550 AD, more than eight hundred years before the Aztecs even historically become tangible, Teotihuacán suddenly went under. The stucco and colorful frescoed buildings in the center went up in flames,maybe the temples on top of the pyramids, images of gods were smashed. If it was a revolution, it did not improve the condition of the people either. The population decreased drastically.
But nobody really knows what happened back then. As little else is known about the state behind the city. Like all ancient American cultures with the exception of the Maya, the Teotihuacanos did not use a developed script. There were only glyphs that were difficult to interpret, but they were more likely to have been emblems than to encode language. There are also no pictorial chronicles. We know nothing about their system of government, even if the Mexican archaeologist Linda Manzanilla has found evidence that the city may have been ruled, at least temporarily, by a college of four rulers, each of whom headed a district. There are stately properties such as the partially reconstructed enchanting "Palace of Quetzalpapálotl" (a hybrid of bird and butterfly),which were certainly inhabited by members of an upper class - but nothing that could be described as a ruler's palace. And no one has ever found a royal tomb anywhere here. In any case, the pyramids are not, but substructures, for temples. Skeletons found there are the remains of victims. Depictions of important personalities or even of rulers, as we know them from the Maya, are completely missing. The individuals who initiated and organized these structures fell into oblivion, as did the fresco painters, lime burners and stone haulers who carried them out.are the remains of victims. Depictions of important personalities or even of rulers, as we know them from the Maya, are completely missing. The individuals who initiated and organized these structures fell into oblivion, as did the fresco painters, lime burners and stone haulers who carried them out.are the remains of victims. Depictions of important personalities or even of rulers, as we know them from the Maya, are completely missing. The individuals who initiated and organized these structures fell into oblivion, as did the fresco painters, lime burners and stone haulers who carried them out.