PXL_20250424_205033668

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:49:22 +0100

Disk of Mictlantecutli, god of Death, found in Teotihuacan's plaza del sol, Mexica.

Initially Teotihuacán was a hamlet. It started to
grow during the first century AD, when the
population of the Valley of Mexico began to
concentrate in the area where the city would later
be built. With a labor force at their disposal, the
rulers began to exploit the area's natural
resources, and embarked on the great project of
building the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon.
They prepared a master plan, which covered
economic questions, as well as the city's early
layout and planning. Teotihuacán was conceived
as a model of the Universe and, indeed, as the
place where the Universe originated. The master
plan was instrumental in making Teotihuacán the
best planned and most influential city in
Mesoamerica during the Classic Period.

Teotihuacán's control of the obsidian mines at
Otumba and Pachuca allowed it to centralize the
production of obsidian goods in the city. Some of
these articles were for domestic sale, while others
were exported. With its economy founded on the
production of obsidian and a monopoly of the
distribution of Thin Orange pottery, Teotihuacán
developed a trading system that embraced almost
every region of Mesoamerica, including places as
far away as the Maya area, the modern state of
Guerrero, and the area around the Gulf of Mexico.

Its metropolitan flavor, its trading system, and
the religious prestige that it must have earned
from its enormous pyramids and ceremonial
center attracted a floating population that greatly
enriched the quality of life in the great city.

After a long period of prosperity, Teotihuacán
finally collapsed in about 750 AD. This seems to
have been brought about in part by pressures from
the new centers of population that were springing
up on the Mexican plateau. However, evidence of
fires and the systematic, devastating way in which
the buildings lining the Avenue of the Dead were
destroyed are irrefutable proof that the main
cause of its collapse must have been internal
conflicts.