Teotihuacán is located approximately 30 miles (50 km) northeast of modern Mexico City. Its massive ruins are the remains of the second-largest city of pre-Columbian America and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. Once home to over 100,000 people, today it attracts almost 3,000,000 visitors annually. Most leave physically exhausted but full of admiration and questions after a day spent wandering through the reconstructed pyramids, temples and apartment buildings. What many visitors fail to realize that Teotihuacán was more than a collection of pyramids, palaces, and temples: for more than five centuries it was a vibrant city filled with industrious adults, squealing children, and barking dogs. Warriors and priests in their stunning feather-bedecked clothing jostled side by side with merchants, farmers, artisans, and probably pickpockets and prostitutes. Exalted or humble, they all knew they were living in what for them was the greatest city in the history of the world, the Birthplace of the Gods.
In 1961 I began my career in Mexican archaeology working in the Teotihuacán valley as a student at the Pennsylvania State University. I have returned to this personal lodestone many times since then. On my most recent two-week visit (November 2008), I spent several days trying to envision how I might lead a tourist who was completely unfamiliar with the site across it. I tried to conjure up the ancient city as a living community, full of people like you and me. The result is this Walking Tour. I hope you enjoy it.
Written by Richard A. Diehl
