- Around Mexico City
Teotihuacán
Building started around 100 BC. In its peak, it was one of the largest cities in the world. It was abandoned around 700 AD. By the time the Aztecs found it, a few centuries later, it was already in a ruined state. They named it Teotihuacán, meaning "Place Where The Gods Were Born".
This is the Temple of Quetzalcóatl, found inside a pyramid during excavation. To the left is the staircase leading to the top, reserved for the use of privileged people only (priests etc). The people of Teotihuacán were very conscious of harmony and balance. Eg. North with South, East with West, Up with Down, good with evil. For this reason, the staircase was to be ascended moving in a diagonal direction for 7 steps, then diagonally the other way, all the way to the top. This would encompass moving from west to east, south to north (as the movement upwards involves moving forward), and from the direction of the underworld to that of the heavens.
The head of Quetzalcóatl, the plumed serpent, appears at intervals to the immediate right of the stairway, emerging from inside the pyramid. The rest of the body is off to the right, weaving in and out of the pyramid, indicating their connection with the real world and underworld. Also to the right is Tlaloc, the rain god.
The first part of it was probably built about 100 years before Christ, and the temple that used to be on top was finished around 300 AD (400 years later). By the time restoration began (earlier this century), the pyramid was just a mass of rubble covered with bushes and trees, and the temple was completely gone.
Some of the cacti here are really quite tall.
Taxco
Some sweet old Mexican guy I met in Taxco. He sits on a street corner every day selling sweet food for a living. I found him again when I visited about 3 months later, sitting in the same spot, selling the same dulces.
A typical street in Taxco (pronounced 'Tasco').
One of the towers of the Santa Prisca church in Taxco.
Puebla
The outer limits of the city of Puebla. This is by no means any reflection of the city center. At this stage I was just bored of seeing the same things in the city centers (Zocalo, church, museum, Mc Donalds...), so I came here. Although Puebla is the 4th largest city in Mexico, it only took 1/2 hr to get here from the center by bus.
Not much here, eh?
This isn't exactly a typical house of the area, but certainly wasn't the only one.