Teotihuacán

The Teotihuacan is known as the Americas' Greatest City.  It was built in the Valley of Mexico around 150 B.C.E.  Its population grew up from 100,000 to 200,000.  It was one of the six largest urban complexes in the world.  The city was very well developed.  It has wide streets, large marketplaces, temples, palaces, living complexes, waterways, drainage systems, colorful murals, and much more.

According to Strayer on page 244-245, on the Street of the Dead there were huge homes built for authorities and elite.  There were also temples and two giant pyramids. One of them was the Pyramid of the Sun.  It was considered the birthplace of the sun and the moon.  And there was the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, where the victims were sacrificed in order to keep company for the high-ranking individuals going into afterlife.  There were sections of the city dedicated to foreigners. 

 Many of their buildings had mural art.  Some of it showed gods, goddesses, flowers, and warriors.  Some of it showed people in the fields chasing butterflies, this represented the souls of the dead.  The rulers in this city did not want to be glorified.  

It collapsed around 650 C.E.  A thousand years later it was remembered as the "city of gods" by the peoples of the Aztec Empire (p. 246).

After reading about this large city, I wonder what happened to it.  It was one of the largest in Mesoamerica, and it had a strong military and trade system.  So, I hope some scholars will turn their interest towards the history of this city and maybe provide us with more details.  I wonder if they were impacted by overusing their soil, or if their land was going through drought, or maybe they had some sort of deadly diseases.   But, what happened to the rest of the people?  Did they run to the nearest civilizations as foreigners? It would be very interesting to find out.

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