Discover What was Teotihuacan architecture like?

The city of Teotihuacán was one of the most important urban centers of antiquity, built in the XNUMXst century BC, it exceeded one hundred thousand inhabitants, it was the sixth largest city in the ancient American world and a demonstration of the grandeur of this culture! Learn all about the Teotihuacan architecture!

TEOTIHUACAN ARCHITECTURE

Teotihuacan architecture

The Teotihuacan culture was a pre-Columbian society that lived in the northeast of the Mexican valley, between the XNUMXst century before Christ and the XNUMXth century after Christ. It is considered one of the most enigmatic cultures of Mesoamerica, since both its origins and its disappearance are still highly discussed among those who know the subject.

As evidence of its existence are the monumental ruins of what was its largest and main urban center, the city of Teotihuacán.

Teotihuacan architecture is an example of the power and vision of this society, which demonstrated, thanks to its meticulous planning and design, to be sufficiently evolved to carry out an urban planning of such magnitude, which was the center of its culture and of Mesoamerica.

The style and importance of Teotihuacan architecture is exhibited in the different buildings and works developed in the city of Teotihuacán, for which knowledge in science such as mathematics and astronomy was required, without neglecting the religious and mythical aspect that inspired life. of these societies.

The different buildings were built with total organization, arranged so that the light made their ornaments stand out.

Its architecture was characterized by a geometric and horizontal style, its different buildings were harmoniously arranged and richly ornamented, with engravings, murals and cladding, all related to its cosmogonic vision.

Teotihuacán was one of the first urban centers in the central zone of what is now the Mexican nation, it was built between the XNUMXst century before Christ and the XNUMXth century after Christ, perhaps the greatest in Mesoamerica.

TEOTIHUACAN ARCHITECTURE

A monumental architecture belonging to a culture that built the first complex cities and then disappeared, without leaving much trace of who they were, which leaves us with quite limited information about who these people were.

Even the real name of this pre-Hispanic urban complex is unknown, since Teotihuacán was the name given by the Mexicas when they arrived centuries later. Upon their arrival they found the ruins of this impressive metropolis, which could have been built, in their opinion, by common people.

The magnificence and dimensions of the buildings made them think of a city of supernatural beings, so they called it with the Nahuatl name of Teotihuacán: the city of the gods.

One of the most striking and important features of Teotihuacan architecture is its scale, the well-known Pyramid of the Sun is an extremely large structure, perhaps the largest built in the ancient world. It was one of the tallest buildings in the West, prior to the invention and development of skyscrapers.

In addition, the architects and urban planners of Teotihuacan worked very correctly on the scale of the environment that surrounded them, the walk along the Causeway of the Dead allows you to appreciate the dominance of the hill on the horizon, however, once you begin to approach the Pyramid of the Moon it replaces the mountain.

Another important aspect of the architecture of Teotihuacan is the use of the talud-tablero, which can be seen in the pyramids of the city, this being the dominant style. The slope-tablero basically consists of placing a platform on a wall with rocky materials that slopes in a similar way to a slope, that is, with a concave shape upwards.

Teotihuacan was so dominant and particular that when the talud-tablero style is seen elsewhere, it is quickly associated with this ancient metropolis. Another very common feature of city buildings is the use of platforms one on top of the other, which become smaller as the building rises.

TEOTIHUACAN ARCHITECTURE

Used materials

The most common materials used in Teotihuacan architecture, especially in the construction of the city of Teotihuacan, were extracted from their surroundings, mainly rocks and wood. However, let us know in detail some of the resources that this culture used for these monumental buildings:

  • Teotihuacan cement: it was a mass made with volcanic stone dust and mud that was used to cover the walls of the structures.
  • Lime plaster: made with sand, water and lime, similar to plaster. It is applied to the wall for a finer finish and then painted.
  • Tepetate: rock extracted from the subsoil of this area.
  • Tezontle: black or red volcanic rock, porous and strong, but easy to carve and shape.
  • Adobe: they were blocks made with mud and straw, exposed to the sun to dry and harden. It is a material that tends to deteriorate quickly, however, it was widely used in the central area of ​​buildings.
  • Wood: used for the construction and energy of the city, it was used in such an excessive way that deforestation was extremely serious and total.

urban planning

Teotihuacan is made up of a plaza, several small pyramids, temples and palaces destined for the priestly caste and nobles, it is also estimated that there are about two thousand one-story departmental complexes, covering about twenty square kilometers.

This city with these dimensions attracted many people from different ethnic and linguistic groups of Mesoamerica, who settled in Teotihuacan, living in multi-family homes very similar to the buildings of today's cities.

The main buildings of the city are connected by the well-known Calzada de los Muertos, road of the dead or miccaotli, a road about forty meters wide and about 2.4 kilometers long.

Among the largest and most important buildings and structures we find the Pyramid of the Moon, the Pyramid of the Sun, the Citadel and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl.

TEOTIHUACAN ARCHITECTURE

Architectural contributions

Currently Teotihuacán is one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico, of which only about ten percent has been excavated, finding many samples and incredible structures.

However, perhaps the most impressive of Teotihuacan architecture and especially of this city are the two ancient pyramids and the so-called Path of the Dead. Let's delve a little deeper into these incredible Mesoamerican architectural contributions:

Pyramid of the Sun

Built around the year 200 after Christ, it is the largest building in Teotihuacan. They located it facing west and it has a height of 216 feet or 66 meters, its base measures approximately 720 by 760 feet, in meters about 220 by 230.

The structure of the Pyramid of the Sun is stepped, concentric platforms that replace the flat and sloped exterior common in other pyramids.

This pyramid is one of the largest and oldest in central Mexico, a whole mountain of impressive structure. Many claim that for those who built it, the pyramid could have represented a mountain.

In ancient cultures the mountains were a sacred place and especially the caves within them, so it can be presumed that the tunnels found inside the pyramid may symbolize those sacred caves, from which, according to the myths, the ancients had emerged. humans. In this case the structure would have much greater symbolism in religious rituals.

On the other hand, if we look at the location of the pyramid, this theory can be very true, because just behind it there is a huge mountain and both contours, both the Pyramid of the Sun and the mountain coincide quite well.

According to some analysis of pigments made to the stones of the structure, it is stated that the pyramid was originally painted red, perhaps because it was a ceremonial place for human sacrifice.

Some theories indicate that the entire pyramid was painted red to make it appear to be covered in blood, a sight that appeased the gods as they watched from the sky.

Pyramid of the Moon

To the north of the Pyramid of the Sun is another slightly smaller structure known as the Pyramid of the Moon, reportedly built some fifty years ago.

The building is located at the north end of the Calzada de los Muertos and faces south. Even being smaller, it is the second largest structure in the city, with a height of 43 meters or 140 feet and a base of approximately 130 by 156 meters or 426 by 511 feet.

It also has the peculiarity of imitating the contour of the nearby mountain and was used for ceremonies, also intended for human sacrifices, originally it was also painted in bright red.

In this pyramid, unlike the others, excavations were carried out inside and a tomb of some important character was found, with many goods and objects, being the one that has been best preserved among all those found in Teotihuacán, it is possible that there are many other tombs in it and in other pyramids.

The Causeway of the Dead

Miccaotli or the path of the dead as it is also known is a straight street that connects the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, surrounded by smaller pyramids, but all of approximately the same height.

Its name was invented by the Mexicas, who when seeing the place for the first time noticed a road bordered by small hills, for the natives these mounds were similar to tombs that due to their size could be the burial of gods and great kings, hence the name of the causeway or the path of the Dead.

However, it is important to clarify that these small hills were all pyramids that over time were covered by earth and plants that grew naturally on them.

The Citadel

Located at the southern end of the Avenue of the Dead, it is a courtyard or plaza of about fifteen hectares, contains multiple elite residential complexes and is dominated by the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, a kind of truncated pyramid that is adorned with numerous heads of stone of the deity of the Feathered Serpent.

It is estimated that it was built around the year 150 of our era, functioning at some point as the political, economic and cultural center of Teotihuacán.

This large patio is the point of origin of the east and west causeways that extend through the city and intersect with the path of the Dead, whose trajectory runs from north to south. The intersection of these two roads divided the city of Teotihuacán into four parts, each of which was a large neighborhood.

The citadel is surrounded by the Great Platform, a space with four angles that exhibits fifteen pyramidal bases, pyramidal-shaped constructions as its name indicates, and that has one or several temples on its top, which are reached by stairs that are part of the of the building.

The four pyramidal bases located on the west side have stairs leading to the Calzada de los Muertos, the others leading to the Great Plaza. All these constructions were united with a wall or rampart that closed the whole complex.

Temple of Quetzalcoatl

The god known as the Feathered Serpent has in Teotihuacán, the City of the Gods, a temple that is the heart of the Citadel and an exquisite sample of Teotihuacan architecture.

It has the shape of a truncated pyramid and with richly ornamented walls, whose motifs are numerous stone heads of the deity, protruding from the same ones that were once bright red.

It is presumed that it was built in at least two stages, since the largest structure dating between 100 and 200 AD, has an additional structure built on its west side, around 300 AD.

The temple displays some of the earliest representations of the Feathered Serpent or Quetzalcoatl, which appears throughout Mesoamerica in different cultures and eras.

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