Who built the pyramids in Mexico?
The pyramids of Mexico are among the most iconic and mysterious structures in the ancient world, drawing millions of visitors and sparking centuries of debate among historians and archaeologists. Unlike the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico’s pyramids have been executed by many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations over more than thousand years. In this article, you will find out who was behind the building of these not less than monumental constructions with detailed insights on the most famous pyramid city of Teotihuacán as well as more of those ancient Mexico giants.
The Builders of Teotihuacán: A Mystery Still Unfolding
Teotihuacán, situated approximately 30 miles to the northeast of the present-day Mexico City, possesses the hugest and most marvelous pyramids in the Americas, among those are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The city was established around 150 BCE and its golden age was in the period from 150 to 450 CE with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Although it was a very big city, nobody knows who were the people who actually built Teotihuacán, which is still one of the biggest puzzles of archaeology. The city’s name, which in Nahuatl language means “the place where the gods were created”, was given by the Aztecs some hundreds of years later after Teotihuacán’s fall.
According to archaeologists' findings, it was a collaboration of different Mesoamerican people, including the Totonacs and other local groups, to come up with a team of urban society that had the skills, a complex understanding of the technological, social and cultural system to make it work.
Engineering Marvels and Construction Techniques
Pyramids of Teotihuacán were amongst the visible reflection of the expansive engineering skills of the builders. Among the various tasks, the most impressive one was probably the river redirection which was a true technological marvel making possible the transportation of mega oversized blocks from the distant quarries to the site of construction and unloading them. Additionally, the urban complex adhered properly to the astronomical events and they did so with great care a long time before the people were able to use it that way.
To the very core, the design and methods of the construction of the city clearly show a people who were so organized that they normally knew all about science, math, and urban planning. Despite the fact that the ceremonial architecture were mainly temples, palaces, and murals, they provide the strongest proof of how much these sites meant to the people who built them.
Other Pyramid Builders in Ancient Mexico
Teotihuacán is the most familiar to most people but it was certainly not the only civilization in Mexico that was building pyramids. Other significant pyramid builders are:
The Maya: Built stepped pyramids throughout the Yucatán Peninsula, Chiapas, and Guatemala, and had different archaeological sites such as Chichen Itza and Palenque.
The Zapotecs: Created the pyramids of Monte Albán in Oaxaca.
The Olmecs: Remembered for the first pyramid mounds and the carved colossal heads on the Gulf Coast.
The Aztecs: Undertook the construction of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) after Teotihuacán's collapse after a long period.
Each culture used pyramid-building methods to suit their environment and cultural requirements, which entailed using local materials and at the same time integrating their religious symbologies into the designs/structures.
The Purpose and Legacy of Mexico’s Pyramids
Mexican pyramids were religious complexes, burial grounds, sacred places of astronomical observations, and oriented temples, always big enough to be seen by people over a wide area, and always being used as a shrine, adoration center to or deities in a particular cult that was followed mostly in the locality. Such centers were in most cases the places where the interconnected matrix of routes within the city, usually combining the sacred/metaphysical, the daily, and the political functions, met. Teotihuacan's influence having extended itself to Xochicalco is most probably a fact verified by the similarities found in the remains of both architectural sites.
For someone interested in moving to Mexico or taking up residence in the country, the pyramids provide an easily understood link to the country's indigenous past. Those people who take the time to develop in-depth knowledge of the people, culture, and creative energies of the ancient Mesoamerican inhabitants are indeed a rare group.
Recent Studies and New Discoveries
Nowadays technology is more advanced, which allows archeologists to excavate and study the pyramids in Mexico thoroughly like never before. They are using LiDAR and ground-penetrating radar to detect unexplored tunnels, chambers, and some artifacts hidden beneath the surface, which can be of great help in reconstructing their purpose and history.
Although much research has been done, the fact remains that there are many questions about Mexico's pyramids that have no answers, creating a remarkable subject of interest for scholars and tourists globally. The pyramids of Mexico's mystery will always be an attraction firstly for the scientists and at the same time for the people who travel to these sites as they can always study the known and at the same time get to know more about the world's most fascinating archaeological legacies.
Mexican pyramids were erected by a series of Mesoamerican civilizations, where Teotihuacán was the most remarkable and mysterious example. Although the real creators of Teotihuacán are still unknown, the evidence points to a local group of people who accomplished incredible things in the fields of engineering and urban planning. Now these pyramids of Teotihuacán stand as proof of Mexico's ancient inventiveness and still fire the imagination to explore and discover.
It would be an amazing experience for anyone moving to Mexico to not only have the chance to see and touch these ancient structures, but also to be able to live with the descendants of the people who built the pyramids.
