Teotihuacan

background: Pyramid of the Moon, from half-way up the Pyramid of the Sun










Walking down the Avenue of the Dead in this precolumbian city, you can almost feel the weight of time adding to the thousands of tons of masonry -over twenty centuries since its first buildings were erected.
I was particularly aware of this fact because only a day before, I had been marveling at five hundred year old cathedrals in the historic distric of Mexico City and all the history since the Spaniards arrived in Mexico.
Pyramid of the Sun. On the right: Avenue of the Dead









Knowing that the builders of this city faded away without ever coming into contact with the people of the Old World feels like watching the remains of an alternate current of history. What if the the Europeans had never crossed the Atlantic and the Mayans had thrived and expanded? Perhaps I'd be posting pictures of ancient Roman ruins and wondering the same thing.
Pyramid of the Sun

Comments

Luna said…
Funny, I had the same thought when I visited the ruins in Yucatan... What if one day the Mayan sailed to Europe and found relics of a mysterious and long extinct civilization there?
Incidentally, you should visit the ruins of imperial Rome... they are breathtaking.
8:48 PM
Al said…
I bet. Maybe someday I'll visit exotic Europe ;-)
10:15 PM
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