Tour Teotihuacan - Pyramid of the Moon

Amid dozens of temples and ruins that line Teotihuacan’s Avenue of the Dead, exist countless frescoes and other fascinating features that would be too numerous to list here.  However, I can’t complete our tour of this amazing city without pausing at the Pyramid of the Moon.

This massive pyramid marks the end of the Avenue of the Dead’s run to the north. The Pyramid of the Moon is slightly smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, but it was constructed on slightly higher ground, effectively lofting its peak to the same elevation.

Similar to excavations made beneath the Pyramid of the Sun, archaeologists have also explored the “interior” of the Pyramid of the Moon where they have discovered not the tunnels of the mysterious Teotihuacanoes, but six earlier versions of the pyramid, each built larger than the previous. In essence, the Pyramid of the Moon resembles a Russian Matryoshka Doll – one stacked inside another, and another, and another.

Photo from Allposters.com

However, each renovation wasn’t without its treasures. Tombs dedicated to the fourth and fifth reconstructions have been located, each containing skeletons of either sacrificial victims or the social elite, animal remains of wolves, jaguars, snakes, birds and the like, and of course, jade, turquoise and obsidian jewelry, weapons and other cultural artifacts. 

Although the purpose of the Pyramid of the Moon can be widely speculated, there is no doubt it was valued to have some great importance to those who built and rebuilt it. One can even wonder about its significance in relation to the wider environment when its very shape mirrors that of the Cerro Gordo mountain behind it.

Did one of the greatest cities of the ancient world attempt to build mountains of its own? Nobody can really asses with complete certainty the mindset of a people that can’t be fully identified. But if there is any lesson that can be taken from Teotihuacan, and the many impressive ruins like it that are decaying around the world, it’s that no matter the greatness achieved by man, it all returns to the dust from which it came in the end.