Teōtīhuacān Holy City

Teotihuacan, in the Valley of Mexico, was the greatest city of ancient Mesoamerica, settled from about 100 BC and a religious centre by the first century. Around 450 it held perhaps 100,000 people, along the Avenue of the Dead; the Temple of the Feathered Serpent was ringed with sculpted serpent heads.

Its influence reached the Maya world, where a Teotihuacan king called Spearthrower Owl installed his dynasts at Tikal in 378. Droughts linked to the climate crisis of 535 and 536 brought famine, and around 550 temples and palaces were burned in an uprising and the city collapsed.

Centuries later the Aztecs named the ruins Teotihuacan, the birthplace of the gods, and came as pilgrims. In 1409 the resettled town received a ruler; from 1427 it passed under the Aztec Empire as an Acolhua vassal.