Interesting Places in Mexico

Mexico City - it is a capital city and at the same time huge metropolis full of life, a cosmopolitan place which can be delighting but also overwhelming. Mexico City is beautiful, romantic and fascinating, but at the same time it is a city of misery, poverty and overpopulation. It is a city full of colonial palaces, historical monuments, which are well-known in the world, vast slums, noisy traffic and calm palaces, green parks and polluted air. When we get tired, we can go to Bosque de Chapultepec, a vast park with a zoological garden and interesting museums located in the centre of the city or we can choose a gondola trip through the old channels in Xochimilco.

Teotihuacan - Teotihuacan archeological zone lies 50 kilometers south of Mexico City, in a part of Valle de Mexico (Bays of Mexico) surrounded by mountains. Teotihuacan, mainly known for its famous Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon , was the biggest ancient city of Mexico and at the same time the capital city of the biggest pre-Spanish empire in Central America.

It is characteristic, that the main streets in the city, which cross at a right angle, were designed at the beginning of the Common Era, and the Pyramid of the Sun was built at the place of the former temple in 150. The major part of the building was erected in 250-160 AD. In the greatest development period in the 6th century, it was the sixth biggest city in the world (with about 200,000 inhabitants). Afterwards, the city started slowly to collapse. Two small avenues cross in the neighborhood of Citadel and divide the city into four parts. On of them running along the north- south axis is a famous Avenida de los Muerteos (the Avenue of the Dead). In the eastern side of the avenue, there is the Pyramid of the Sun (Piramide del Sol). Only a pyramid in Choluli and Cheops Pyramid are bigger. The building has a surface of 222 m2 and it is more than 70 meters high. In 1971 archeologists discovered a 100-meter long tunnel, which runs from the western walls of pyramid to a cave located directly under the central part of the building. A lot of religious worship items were found here. It is considered, that the worship of the God of Sun existed here before the construction of the pyramid. The Pyramid of the Sun is painted in bright red color and 248 steps lead to its peak. The Pyramis of the Moon (Piramide de la Luna), located in the northern part of Avenida de los Muertos is smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, but it has better proportions. The peak is more or less at the same height, because the building stands at the higher surface. In front of the pyramid there is Plaza de la Luna (the Square of the Moon) with twelve socles which go under the temple. Some experts attribute a heavenly symbolic to this number 13 ( 12 socles and the pyramid). Many are convinced, that next to the altar, in the central part of the palace, some ritual dances took place.