It’s been almost three weeks since I first came to Mexico, and so far my favorite trip has to be our trip to the pyramids at the ruined site of Teotihuacan. The three pyramids that we focused on over there are the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl (the smallest one of the three), the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Pyramid of the Sun. The Pyramid of the Sun was by far the largest one of the three, and our class actually climbed all the way to the top! It was a very difficult climbing experience, especially since the steps leading up the pyramids were really steep compared to modern standards. I have no clue how the Aztecs were able to climb up all those pyramids on a regular basis; if there hadn’t been an attached handrail for shoddy climbers like me, there is no way I could have ever made it to the top.
But once I got there, wow! The view was absolutely breathtaking! You could look around you in all directions and see Mexico stretch out to the horizon. It might have been a tough and scary climb to the top, but it was SO worth it to stand at one of the tallest ancient structures still standing in Mexico and see the world as the ancients would have seen it.
The one thing that really surprised me about the pyramids was that they were actually built by a civilization BEFORE the Aztecs came by. The Aztecs merely adopted the pyramids and the symbols that came with them into their own mythology, such as the jaguar and the serpent. So who really did make the pyramids in the first place? We may never know.
