Teotihuacán

History

Teotihuacan culture began to develop around 500 BC, when the valley held a scattering of villages. They grew into a city on a scale matched in ancient Mexico only by Tenochtitlan at the time of the Spanish arrival, with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, the Temple of Quetzalcóatl and a market surrounded by buildings of government. The Nahuatl name, given later, means roughly 'place where the gods are'.

The site kept its prestige into early colonial times, when the lords of Texcoco took pride in holding it. The colonial town took the name San Juan Teotihuacán and at the end of the 16th century was granted in encomienda to Francisco de Verdugo Bazán. During the War of Independence the area was mainly a corridor for passing armies and a supplier of food to Mexico City. The Revolution hit harder: the coming and going of rival forces ruined local farming and left hunger behind.

Archaeology changed the town's fortunes. Leopoldo Batres explored and restored the Pyramid of the Sun in 1905. Between 1962 and 1964 a major project led by Ignacio Bernal uncovered the great plazas, the Avenue of the Dead and the Quetzal-Butterfly Palace, and a road was built to the site. The town is now a Pueblo Mágico.