Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is an ancient Mesoamerican city in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, roughly 40 kilometers northeast of modern Mexico City, built beginning around 100 BC and abandoned by about 750 AD. The identity of its builders is still debated among Nahua, Otomi and Totonac candidates, but the city was clearly multiethnic, drawing residents from across Mesoamerica including Oaxaca and the Gulf Coast, and at its height in the fourth and fifth centuries AD it may have housed well over 100,000 people, among the largest cities in the world at that time. Its plan is organized along the Avenue of the Dead, a processional way about 4 kilometers long and 40 meters wide, running past the Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest pyramid in the world at about 65 meters high, the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. UNESCO inscribed Teotihuacan as a World Heritage Site in 1987.