Why can’t you climb the pyramids at Teotihuacán anymore?

In the opening of times, erstwhile thing was arsenic we cognize it today, the gods gathered astir the sun. When they each took their places, accidental the ancient scriptures, they sat and decided to make the world. Many attempts were made; galore beings were created and destroyed. After galore efforts, Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent god, acceptable retired to the underworld to speech to Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the dead, who had the past bony successful the cosmos, needed to make the cleanable being.

They settled that the bony indispensable beryllium divided successful two, truthful that each of them could support a portion for themselves. Quetzalcóatl returned to the different gods with the coveted portion of bone, which they yet utilized to make the archetypal quality beings. In their honor, erstwhile respective men and women were created, the recently calved humans built a beatified city. That was how, according to the Mexica who discovered the long-abandoned metropolis erstwhile they migrated into Central Mexico, the magnificent Teotihuacán came to be.

The beatified metropolis of Teotihuacán was the largest successful present-day Mexico, and the astir influential politically and commercially successful the Mesoamerican region. (Beatriz Quintanar Hinojosa/INAH)

The National Institute of Anthropology and History’s (INAH) records suggest that this archaeological tract successful present-day México authorities was constructed astir the twelvemonth 200 BCE. In the precise beginning, farming communities occupied it and built its foundations. However, they rapidly established commercialized relationships with the neighboring towns, which yet became the largest commercialized web successful Mesoamerica. Archaeological remains show that this interregional commercialized reached the Maya, and had large governmental power successful the Yucatán peninsula during the Preclassic and Classic Maya periods.

We don’t cognize what the inhabitants of Teotihuacán called themselves: the city’s name, translated arsenic “where the gods were created” oregon “where men became gods,” was fixed to it by the Aztecs who recovered it 1000 years aft its foundation. But the Teotihuacanos  built the largest metropolis successful past Mesoamerica, the taste portion spanning from present-day cardinal Mexico to Costa Rica. With an country of implicit 22 quadrate kilometers, Teotihuacán “was 1 of the taste centers of the region,” INAH authorities say, and had “stylistic and architectural influences” that reached the Maya successful Guatemala and Honduras.

Why can’t radical ascent the pyramids anymore?

Mexicans contiguous person a shared awe for the ruins of Teotihuacán. I archetypal went to the tract arsenic a child, climbing the Pyramid of the Sun and crying successful fearfulness of falling erstwhile we had to spell down the pyramid’s 238 steps.

Children today, sadly, volition not person the aforesaid memories arsenic I do. In 2020, INAH authorities announced a caller prohibition: visitors would nary longer beryllium allowed to ascent the structures successful the complex.

The writer was privileged capable to ascent the pyramids portion the Teotihuacán tract authorities allowed it. Visitors contiguous are not arsenic lucky. (Maciej Cisowski/Pexels)

“Neither the footwear nor the fig of visitors (some days saw 15,000 visitors daily) were the same,” writes Alejandro Alcolea, writer and exertion of the technological magazine Xataka México.

The determination was taken to sphere the past structures, arsenic happened successful different archaeological sites, similar Chichén Itzá. Although the pyramids astatine Teotihuacán were mostly reconstructed aft excavation successful the aboriginal 20th century, their preservation is simply a precedence for the INAH, and visitant information is simply a information arsenic well.

Researchers and the property request peculiar support to instrumentality photos of the pyramid oregon behaviour immoderate enactment connected the structures. Heavy fines are meted retired to those who interruption these restrictions.

Depending connected the severity of the conduct, fines span from 500 to 100,000 pesos depending connected however severely the operation was damaged, and irreparable harm is punishable by jailhouse time. Violators person besides faced aggravated crowds: connected March 20, a German visitant who climbed the Temple of Kukulkán successful Chichén Itzá, Yucatán was booed and struck by different tourists who had gathered to ticker the outpouring solstice astatine the analyzable earlier being taken into custody by National Guard officers.

You tin inactive spot Teotihuacán from up high

If you truly privation to spot the Teotihuacán from supra and aren’t acrophobic of heights, you inactive person options, namely a blistery aerial balloon thrust supra the ruins. Nothing compares to the show of the Teotihuacán vale astatine sunrise connected a acold morning.

Prices commencement astatine 2,300 pesos, and you tin bask the champion panoramic presumption of the site. You tin cheque retired the packages and experiences at Tripadvisor, and take immoderate fits your needs best.

In immoderate case, you person to beryllium an aboriginal bird. The activities commencement early, and you are usually expected to beryllium contiguous astatine San Juan Teotihuacán astatine 5 a.m. The longest thrust is astir 3 hours long, but you tin ever take shorter versions.

If you are taking the blistery aerial balloon ride, travel prepared! Mornings are usually chilly, truthful beryllium advised to bring a overgarment with you, and immoderate sunblock, too, due to the fact that the Sun is dense arsenic the time continues. As dawn breaks, you’ll surely get a glimpse astatine mighty Quetzalcoatl, soaring among the clouds.

Andrea Fischer contributes to the features table astatine Mexico News Daily. She has edited and written for National Geographic en Español and Muy Interesante México, and continues to beryllium an advocator for thing that screams science. Or yoga. Or both.