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ART
ARCHITECTURE
Teotihuacan and the Avenue of the Dead. (above)
LOCATION
Teotihuacan is located in the valley of Mexico about 30 kilometers from Mexico City.
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No other city
of ancient America can compare in size or importance with Teotihuacan.
There, a minor village that originated three centuries before
Christ was to grow into the great metropolis whose history was a pattern
for the destiny of Central Mexico. In Teotihuacan we have for the
first time a real city with a large density of population, obvious
differentiation of social classes, professional groups, a viable
economy, and of course, as Olmec times had already see, a great
monumental art. The first settlement
at Teotihuacan can be dated to around A.D.30, plus or minus 80 years,
this being the carbon 14 date of charcoal found in the interior of an
early mound.
In Teotihuacan certain groups of buildings formed large complexes of an exclusively religious nature, while others seem to have served civil purposes, such as those surrounding what was probably the market place. The two great pyramids, of the Sun and Moon, are still standing; each has in front of it a large plaza which was surrounded by other pyramids with temples atop. Around the great temples of the gods and what were probably houses for the head priests, large sectors of the city were occupied by the palaces of the nobility. From the Book: Mexico in Colour Ignacio Bernal and Groth |
