Page 81 - 100 Events That Made History

City slickers Religion, ritual, and art
There was no jumble of streets Teotihuacanos worshipped
in Teotihuacan’s city center. It many GODS. Priests kept the
was built on a neat grid with a gods happy with animal and
wide avenue lined with pyramid human sacrifices. Besides
platforms for making sacrifices. painting spectacular murals,
The landmark PYRAMIDS of the the people of Teotihuacan
Sun and Moon stood to the north also made striking pottery,
of the avenue, and the Temple of jewelry, and masks.
Quetzalcoatl was to the south. The
ceremonial zone made up only a
tenth of the city—there were also
built-up suburbs packed with
housing complexes.
The Avenue of the This mural from a How it changed the world
Dead was so called as
Teotihuacano palace
it looks like there are
shows a priest in a
feathered headdress.
tombs on both sides.
Teotihuacano culture
spread to the Maya,
Aztecs, and others. Those
peoples worshipped
similar gods and copied
Teotihuacan’s style of
architecture. The Aztecs
even used the same
method of building on
floating reed islands.

What came after…

The city’s end is as much The AZTECS used to make
a mystery as its beginning. pilgrimages to the ruins of
In the 600s, TEOTIHUACAN Teotihuacan. They believed
was abandoned and it was the birthplace of the
buildings were burned. sun god, Tonatiuh, shown
Perhaps there was a revolt? here on their calendar stone.
79