When the Aztecs found this metropolis it had lain in ruins for centuries, and they named it the birthplace of the gods. At its height it held over 100,000 people. The Avenue of the Dead runs 15.5° east of north — an orientation repeated across Mesoamerica — flanked by the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Sheets of mica, traded from the Valley of Oaxaca some 400 km to the south, were found layered inside some structures.
See Teotihuacán on the globe
Opens with the Sky Alignments lens on, so you can see what it connects to.
Notable facts
- The Pyramid of the Sun's base is almost identical in area to the Great Pyramid of Giza's, though it is half the height.
- Liquid mercury — perhaps symbolising an underworld river or lake — was found in a chamber at the end of a sealed tunnel beneath the Feathered Serpent pyramid in 2015.
- Large sheets of mica — an electrical insulator — were embedded between structural layers.
Through the theories
How each theory reads Teotihuacán. Follow a theory to see its verdict and every other site it claims.
Sky AlignmentsEstablished science
The city's east–west axis, perpendicular to the Avenue of the Dead, faces sunset on about 30 April and 13 August — the August date some researchers tie to the Long Count's creation date of 3114 BCE.
ResonanceMeasured; intent debated
Handclaps on the staircases return raindrop-like chirped echoes, linked by some researchers to the rain god's iconography.
Sacred GeometryA spectrum
Hugh Harleston Jr. claimed the city is laid out on a repeating 'hunab' unit of 1.059 m, encoding π and φ and even planetary distances along the Avenue of the Dead.
Earth GridNo measurable evidence
The mica layers and the 'river' of mercury are staple evidence in 'power plant' theories: insulators and conductors in a city shaped like a machine.
AstronautsNo physical evidence
Mica sheets (an electrical insulator) layered into buildings and a river of mercury beneath a city 'where the gods were made' — the genre's favourite exhibits.
