Discover the Top 9 Amazing Fun Facts About Teotihuacan: Unraveling the Mysteries of this Ancient City!

1. Mercurial Teotihuacan

Who knew the ancient city of Teotihuacan had such a "mercurial" personality! Stealthily lurking beneath its tunnels is something you wouldn't expect: Liquid mercury was discovered under the city, with archaeologists theorizing its use for symbolic purposes in religious ceremonies or possibly to represent the underworld.
Source => nextleveloftravel.com

2. Great Goddess' Beastly Companions

When Teotihuacan's Great Goddess asked "Who's there?" during a game of cosmic hide-and-seek, formidable creatures like owls, jaguars, and spiders emerged from the shadows to join her league of extraordinary companions: As the central icon of Teotihuacano religious culture, the Great Goddess was deeply linked to darkness, mystery, death, and creation, often represented alongside these beastly sidekicks in captivating painted murals scattered across the ancient city.
Source => courses.lumenlearning.com

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=> Fun Facts about Pompeii

3. Suns Out, Guns Out: Human Power

Who needs horsepower when you've got people power? In ancient Teotihuacan, the residents had a serious gym culture going on, and were probably the first to coin the term "suns out, guns out": The city, densest in the ancient Americas, housed approximately 100,000 people who managed to complete all their construction and agriculture tasks without any help from animals. That's right, no donkeys, no horses – just old-fashioned human muscles doing all the heavy lifting!
Source => digitalstories.famsf.org

4. Celestial Party Planners

Who knew the ancient Teotihuacans were celestial party planners, meticulously planning their events to the tunes of sunrises and sunsets – dressed to the nines, of course: The Pyramid of the Sun is aligned to mark notable lunar and Venus phenomena, allowing the Teotihuacans to synchronize the timing of long-distance market exchanges and annual ritual celebrations, showcasing their astronomical prowess!
Source => researchgate.net

5. Express Elevator to the Underworld

Who needs the stairway to heaven when you can take Teotihuacan's express elevator to the underworld: Recent excavations have discovered a 300-foot long tunnel under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, believed to represent a passage to the underworld and hold significant importance in Mesoamerican religions.
Source => khanacademy.org

6. Birthday Bash at the Pyramid of the Sun

Whoever said "time flies when you're having fun" must have had a blast building the Pyramid of the Sun: this colossal calendar-based creation is perfectly aligned to catch the sunset on August 11th, the supposed birthday of our planet in 3114 BC according to Mesoamerican cosmology. No party is complete without proper decor, so they even added 260 steps to the top, matching the 260-day Ritual Calendar and showing these ancient architects were skilled both in stone and in style.
Source => uncoveredhistory.com

7. Sardine-style Living

They say home is where you hang your hat, but in Teotihuacan, it's where you piled the family in like sardines: The ancient city housed a diverse population in adorably cozy multihousehold apartments, some catering to low-status residents while others hosted the high society, altogether accommodating a probable 85,000 to 125,000 inhabitants at its peak.
Source => cambridge.org

8. Pyramid of the Sun's Stellar Views

If the Pyramid of the Sun were on Airbnb, it would boast a prime location atop a mysterious cave, stellar views at 200 feet high, and possibly a crash course on creation mythology: This architectural wonder in Teotihuacan was built over a cave, hinting at its potential connection to myths surrounding origins and fertility. Now heavily reconstructed, you can still ascend the steep steps from the Avenue of the Dead to a vantage point that would make even the ancient gods jealous – an experience truly worth its weight in ancient stones!
Source => smarthistory.org

9. Ancient Luxury Condo-dwellers

Move over, luxury condo-dwellers - the Teotihuacános were livin' large way before you figured out Feng Shui and avocado toast: evidence suggests that Teotihuacán society enjoyed remarkable egalitarian wealth distribution, with most residents inhabiting spacious, luxurious apartment-like multifamily compounds, free from massive underclasses and strong social class distinctions.
Source => slate.com