Teotihuacan

"Already well behind the other three, I finally reached the top. Despite his age, The Professor was surprisingly fit and agile and only Arthur had beaten him to the top. As I arrived, panting and sweating, he welcomed me to the The Pyramid of the Moon and then told me to turn around and look. And what a view it was too. Straight down the Avenue of the Dead. It ran straight, from the base of our pyramid and seemed to disappear in the distance, its direction running into the brown hills. The land around was tanned and dusty, but green trees seemed rather randomly scattered over the area. The smaller pyramids, temples and other buildings made a procession down either side of the avenue, with the huge Temple of the Sun dominating to our left."

Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals. Additionally, Teotihuacan produced a thin orange pottery style that spread through Mesoamerica.

View of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun, from the Pyramid of the Moon

The city is thought to have been established around 100 BCE and continued to be built until about 250 CE. It may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. At this time it may have had more than 200,000 inhabitants, placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano.

The view from the Pyramid of the Sun

The city and the archaeological site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, Mexico, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Mexico City. The site covers a total surface area of 83 km² and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico.