Teotihuacan Influence

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Teotihuacan was a pre-Columbian city in ancient Mesoamerica located in the Valley of Mexico. Believed to have been established around 100 B.C., Teotihuacan’s influence is evident throughout Mesoamerica. At its cultural peak around 450 A.D., Teotihuacan spread out over twelve square miles and housed somewhere between 100,000 to possibly upwards of 250,000 inhabitants according to some scholars, making it one of the largest cities in the world at the time. The cities major monuments, civic centers, and the ruling classes housing were systematically burned around A.D. 550. Little is known of the people who founded the city, all that remains are their monuments, murals, and artifacts; it is these things that I will examine and attempt to define…show more content…
The Avenue of the Dead was given its name by the Aztecs because upon their re-discovery of the city they believed the many temples located on the road to be funerary tombs, thus they called the central road the Avenue of the Dead. Among these structures on the Avenue is the Pyramid of the Sun, the largest pyramid in Mesoamerica. The Pyramid of the Sun is located in between the Pyramid of the Moon and the Ciudadela. The Pyramid of the Sun was most certainly known by another name during Teotihuacan’s zenith, the name comes from the Aztecs who arrived at Teotihuacan centuries after it had fallen. The pyramid stands 233.5 feet high with a base perimeter of 8,555 square feet and is built using the talud tablero style, which means slope and panel. By using this architectural style the Teotihuacanos were able to create the pyramidical shape that we see prominently throughout the structures of Teotihuacan. Very few artifacts have been found around the Pyramid of the Sun, among those discovered are a number of obsidian arrowheads and human figurines. It is believed that the pyramid also serves some anthropological purpose as a number of astrological events that would have held some significance with the Teotihuacanos can be viewed from the

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