A visit to the Ancient Pyramids of Teotihuacan

Travel Tales: Find it both fun and challenging (and always rewarding) to push our understanding, to dive a little deeper, and to rethink our views of the mysteries of life, nature, history, and mythology that we often take for granted, even if we don't & often can’t arrive at neat conclusions.

Earlier this year, during a visit to the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico, my passionate guide kept challenging the traditional narratives surrounding this ancient site. 

Under a blazing sun, as we walked along the Avenue of the Dead, past the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, she explained how she believed most tourists receive an incomplete picture of the various theories about Teotihuacan’s origins. While the Aztecs did discover this imposing abandoned pyramid city, and gave it its name,"city of the gods," the original name remains undeciphered from surviving glyphs. Archeologists are still debating and researching these origins, but she, along with others, is more intrigued by how the city's architecture aligns powerfully with astronomical phenomena. For her, the pyramids’ alignment with the sun on the June solstice and with the Pleiades suggests a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of cosmology, hinting at theories that go beyond conventional earthly explanations. According to her, portions of the site represent not just the earthly mother, but the universal mother too, while the Avenue of the Dead represents the seven stages in the life, death and transmigration cycle of souls. 

Whatever the truth may be of Teotihuacan, shrouded by the mists of centuries, difficult to pierce, the fact is the imposing architecture and iconography here in turn shaped the symbology of succeeding civilizations, such as the Zapotecs, Maya, Toltecs, and Aztecs. Myths building upon more myths which really is the story of most civilizations. 

As a mere spectator, this magical site’s mysterious origin stories are too vast and complex for me to draw any conclusions to of course. But I thoroughly enjoyed having my senses and sensibilities tingled, chatting with my rosy-cheeked guide and loved her parting tourist-friendly reminder (shared here in the carousel) that the ultimate Teotihuacan power was in the now. In the moment, not past or present. 

As it is for all of us modern day humans too. Now. It’s hard but we must try. And it’s certainly always easier while on vacation.