Teotihuacán

Next day we organised for 16 PISA people to go to the pyramids at Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods. Our driver from Thursday and a couple of his mates took us out there for a very reasonable price, so we drove out through kilometre after kilometre of suburbs until we got to the pyramids.

This is the site of the Sun and the Moon pyramids, and was Mexico's biggest ancient city and capital of the largest pre-hispanic empire. The city was developed in the early part of the first century AD, and the pyramid of the Sun was built by 150AD. At 2300m above sea level, it was always going to be a challenge to climb , but we all did it! Daniel then climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon - twice - because on the first climb there was no one at the top that he knew to take his photo, so he came down and went back up!

The Avenue of the Dead was the main street of Teotihuacan. It ran for more than 2.5 km, beginning at the Moon Plaza to the north and extending beyond the Ciudadela and the Great Compound complexes to the south.

The avenue divided the city into two sections. Apartment compounds with pyramidal constructions were arranged on both sides of the avenue, often symetrically and sharing the same orientation. This highly planned city-layout suggests that the avenue may have been planned since its earliest phases of urbanization.

The main sector of the avenue was evidently the section between the Moon Pyramid and the Rio San Juan channel. This part of the avenue was lined with long platforms. Access to flanking residential zones was confined to masonry stairways with balustrades. The width of the avenue varies significantly between different sections, ranging from 40 to 95 metres. A large long channel under the floor of the avenue gathered rain water from neighboring architectural units and drained it into Rio San Juan.

As originally built, the Sun Pyramid was approximately 215 by 215 m at the base, and about 63 m high. It was significantly enlarged at least twice in later periods, resulting in a final size of 225 m along each side. The pyramid was located on the east side of the Avenue of the Dead in the northern half of the city. If the area of monumental construction between the Moon Pyramid and the San Juan Canal is regarded as the central zone of the city, the Sun Pyramid is located at its middle. In addition to its geographic centrality, the importance of the pyramid is indicated by a cave located under the structure, which was used for ritual purposes.

The Moon Pyramid is located at the northern end of the Avenue of the Dead, which was the main axis of the city. The pyramid, facing south, was built as the principal monument of the Moon Pyramid complex. The five-tiered platform was attached to the front of the Moon Pyramid. It is said that the present pyramid has interior structures within it.

The consolidated structures around the Moon Plaza demonstrate that the city was highly planned symmetrically and was integrated into the local geography. This may be realized by standing on the center line of the Avenue of the Dead, namely on the main axis of the city. The top of mountain Cerro Gordo dominating the background of the Moon Pyramid exactly coincides at a certain point of the avenue with the top of the pyramid; a pan-Mesoamerican notion that the pyramid represents a sacred mountain seems to have been an integral element of the city plan. The Avenue of the Dead begins at the Moon Plaza, which was surrounded by 15 pyramidal structures including the Moon Pyramid. The Quetzalpapalotl Palace lies immediately to the southwest of the Moon Plaza. Like the Main Plaza in the Ciudadela, the Moon Plaza seem to have been one of the main ritual precincts of the city.

Teotihuacan

Mexico City - first impressions

We flew into Mexico City late on Thursday night. From a distance you could see the lights of this enormous city, and as we got closer it became obvious just how big it was. I can't even remember clearing customs and immigration now, but I guess we did!

Found the hotel, in the Zona Rosa district, which at night is teeming with activity - not always savoury - have seen quite a few prostitutes of both genders! However it's not that far from downtown, and has its own charm.

First album of photos on the picasa web page is sights around Mexico City.

On the first day we hired a taxi driver who drove us around all day for 800 pesos for the four of us - about $20 each. He took us first to the main bullfighting ring in Mexico City - the Monumental Plaza Bull Ring, which holds about 110, 000 people and has fights on a Saturday. It looked hot and uncomfortable, and for those of us with other than tiny derrieres, the concrete seats looked narrow and constricting!!! Next stop was the Frida Kahlo house in Coyoacan. None of us knew much about Frida Kahlo before we went there - only what we had remembered for those of us who'd seen the Selma Hayek film! Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived in this house during part of their marriage; they had a stormy relationship and divorced but came back together throughout their lives. They were both communists, and their paintings are passionate and strong and evocative of their times and lives. For example Frida had an affair with Trotsky. There's a lot more info here. The print I bought is shown and described here.

After this we went to Xochimilco...

In pre-Hispanic Mexico , in the valley where Mexico City stands was a lake called Lago Texcoco, which now has long been drained. The Aztecs, long before the Spanish came, dug a series of canals around the edge of the lake, and the mud they dug was heaped on the earth around the canals or on anchored reeds atop the water. These plots of land, appeared like floating islands called chinampas - hence, their name ‘floating gardens’.

To maintain soil fertility, farmers annually scraped muck from the canal bottom and applied decaying aquatic vegetation to the islands to prepare seed beds. The gardens became one of the most productive farming systems ever developed. By the time the Conquistadors came, the area of Xochimilco had become a rich agricultural district where many of the city's flowers, fruits and vegetables were grown.

Today this area, once on the edge of Mexico City, has been engulfed by the city. There are miles of these canals of which only 14 km, lined with farm homes and trees, dominated by the ahuejote, are navigable. The Gardens, besides still producing flowers, fruits and vegetables, have become a favourite spot where both locals and tourists come for a few hours to relax in the canals and enjoy their market culture.

Our trajinera (flat boat), like the 2,000 others that daily ply these canals for both work and pleasure, glided over the water with ease. Smaller trajineras, called chalupas came up alongside and continuously harangued us, offering drinks, food, handicrafts and much more - seemingly everything under the sun was for sale on these floating markets. Some were virtually floating kitchens, which offered a complete hot meal. Very touristy and yet not - there were many locals having parties on these boats, mariachi bands playing - it was all very festive and relaxing.

We went around the next day on the Turibus, which provided us with an overview of the main sights here. We also all got sunburnt, underestimating the strength of the sun as we sat in traffic for hour after hour after hour!

In the Zocalo we went to the archaelogical site of Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs built their capital city, called Tenochtitlan, in the center of enormous Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs believed they were the “chosen people” of Huitzilopochtli and did everything that he desired of them. During the fourteenth century, Huitzilopochtli told the Aztec chieftain that their new homeland would be on the island in Lake Toxcoco, and when they reached the island they were to look for an eagle eating a snake perched on a cactus growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water. This would be the location where they were to build their city and honor him. They found this location and began to build their city around the year 1325 AD.

The city of Tenochtitlan continued to grow, having an estimated population of 200,000. The city grew to a point where there was no more room for expansion on the island and they were forced to move out into the lake areas. The agricultural portion of this expansion was successful because of the invention of the chinampas or floating gardens. The floating gardens were constructed by bunching twigs together then stacking mud on top of the twigs. They were not anchored at first and could be towed until the plants roots anchored into the lake floor.

The Aztecs connected the island to the mainland by three causeways that ran next to dikes that were built to keep the fresh water of Lake Texcoco separate from other salty lakes of the area. The dikes also protected the agricultural chinampas. Canals ran between the chinampas; they were used to convey traffic through the city, including to and from the market of Tlatelolco.

The city flourished until the year 1521 when Hernandez Cortes and his Spanish army invaded and captured the city. The Spanish also had two other advantages: a lot of tactical skills on behalf of Cortes and smallpox, which devastated the Aztec population. After he defeated the Aztecs, Cortes destroyed most of the buildings that they had built and constructed the new Spanish city on top of the ruins, even using many of the original Aztec building materials in the new construction. He built his home on top of Montezuma’s palace and his cathedral on top of the Aztec temple. After a battle in 1692 the Spanish destroyed most of the art of the Aztecs in the name of Christianity. More info from Wikipedia here.

Mexico City 2007

Mum's birthday

Mum's 70th last weekend - we all had a lovely time and I think she did too!

Photos here:

Gwen's 70th Birthday

Birthdays and concerts galore

This has been a big week - Michael's birthday, Mum's birthday and Roger Waters all on February 1st and then Eric Clapton on the 3rd!
Both concerts were amazing - one for the opportunity to hear some of Waters' new stuff, and also (mainly) to hear the whole of Dark Side of the Moon played live. Different than the version with just Dave Gilmore, but just as awesome.
Eric Clapton - well what can you say - he is still the master, and Layla and Cocaine were fantastic!

A couple of photos... that's all!

Roger Waters