Teotijuacan

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Journal Entry: Sunday, September 29, 2002

We spent the day climbing up and down stairs built 2300 years ago. Teotijuacan was old and abandoned when the Aztecs (who really were called the Mexicas (Me-she-cas) finally found their eagle with the serpent in its beak, on a nopal cactus, on a little island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. No one knows to this day why this beautiful, well planned, red painted city was abandoned. At one point, between 70 and 120,000 people lived in Teotihuacan. It is situated in a perfect place, nestled among lakes, rivers and volcanoes. Tenochtitlan, or where the Mexicas or Aztecs settled according to their eagle on the cactus myth, on the other hand was in a horrible place, on a little island without water or land in the middle of a salt water lake. In the picture below you will see people dressed as Mexicas in front of the Pyramid of the Sun. Notice the big feathered head dresses. Since gold and silver adornments were common for the Mexicas the only way the priests and emperors could differentiate themselves was by wearing clothing and head dresses of exotic bird feathers.

We learned that they used a form of stucco to build the pyramids, temples and housing of the common people. They made the stucco using sand, lime and the juice of the nopal cactus. It has held up amazingly well over the last 2300 years. It still looks a lot like cement. They used the eggs of an insect that lays its eggs on the nopal cactus and the sticky juice of the nopal to make a beautiful red paint to paint the walls. When the city was in its prime the walls were all painted red. (See picture in an upcoming journal entry.)