After the Conquista

When the Spanish came here in 1519 after their defeat at Tenochtitlán (Noche triste), the old city was completely covered over with earth. The first excavations were undertaken in 1864 by Almaraz and these were followed in the 1880s by those of Désiré Charnay and Leopoldo Batres. Reconstructions carried out at the beginning of the 20th c. partially destroyed and falsified the original outlines of some of the main buildings. Further excavations and restorations carried out under Manuel Gamio and Ignacio Marquina in the 1920s, and other work started in 1962 by the Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia, all resulted in outstanding achievements. This work has been continued by the Arizona State University. In 1988 UNESCO declared these ruins of Teotihuacán to be cultural heritage sites.

The Ruins

The site has only been partially uncovered. The archaeological zone extends over an area of more than 20sq.km/8sq.mi, while the actual ceremonial centre occupies a mere 4.2sq.km/1.5sq.mi. When seeing the rather uniform-looking architecture, the observer would do well to remember that originally all the façades of the buildings would have been covered in a multi-coloured layer of stucco and were partly decorated with sculptures.