Teotihuacan Place of the Gods essays

Teotihuacan Place of the Gods essays Teotihuacan, the name of the magnificent and dramatic urban center about thirty-three miles north-east of modern day Mexico City, has been variously translated from the Nahua language of the Aztec people as the dwelling place of the gods and the place where men become gods. (Baldwin) Names of the city and buildings all come from the Aztecs. It is believed that their religion was composed of a female deity, the Great Goddess, who dominated cave and mountain ritual, divination, and may have also had solar associations. While a male god, the Storm God, presided over water and violent weather. (Miller, M) Around 100 BCE the city started to form from clusters of agricultural villages, and by 200 CE Teotihuacan was growing rapidly into a very large city and civilization. It reached its peak by about 500 CE where the population possibly reached anywhere from 125,000 to more than 200,000. There were more than 500 workshops for objects of wood, ceramic, and obsidian. Obsidian was one of the areas strategic resources. (Miller, R) Due it its size, structure, and all around magnificence Teotihuacan was the first truly urban Mesoamerican civilization. Teotihuacan was formatted in a type of grid shape. (See picture 1 and 2) It was centered on what was called Miccaotli(Miller, M) or the Avenue of the Dead which runs from north to south. (See picture 3 and 4) The now dry San Juan River bed transverses the avenue from east to west. This river may have been one of the main water supplies and a good reason for the rise of such a massive civilization. This ceremonial center of the city is about 1.2 miles long and is spanned by the cities three major structures. At the north end is the Pyramid of the Moon. Beyond the summi ...