In numerous works, monographs, articles and publications devoted to the study of two great ancient civilizations - the Maya and the Aztecs, researchers invariably refer to the mention of several more cultures, no less mysterious … Until now, thorough archaeological research has not answered the question: who, when and why did he build the Aztec city of Teotihuacan?
And the death of this ancient metropolis is shrouded in mystery.
City among the forest
It is only known for certain that the Aztecs did not build Teotihuacan with its famous pyramids, which are supposedly more than two thousand years old. Following the legend, the ancient Indian leaders found among the virgin forests a completely empty and lifeless, but surprisingly planned city, which struck them especially with two grandiose pyramids located on both sides of the main street. In addition, gigantic trees, known today as North American sequoias, grew in its center, the trunk of which reached fourteen meters in diameter.
The Aztecs named this place Teotihuacan, which means "where people become gods." The true builders and architects who designed such an ideal city in terms of structure have remained unknown.
It has been proven that the layout of the streets and squares of Teotihuacan may well be a model of the solar system, and scientists learned about the existence of some planets that symbolize individual temples of the city in late centuries. From north to south, the whole of Teotihuacan is crossed by a long and wide street, which is, as it were, the axis of this unusual city.
The Aztecs gave it the name Road of the Dead. On this wide street, religious processions and crowds of pilgrims passed to the main sanctuaries of the city.
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The sanctuaries, called the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, are the tallest found to date in the ancient civilizations of America. The Pyramid of the Sun is a five-tiered structure with a flat top, on which a small temple once stood.
This structure reaches a height of 63 m, and the length of each of the bases exceeds 200 m. The second colossus - the pyramid of the Moon - in its design and appearance is an exact copy of the first monument and is second only to him in height - 42 m. But it was erected so cleverly that it looks contemporary, deceived by the ancient builders, who knew, apparently, the secrets of optical distortion, perceives the pyramid of the Moon as it approaches it, which is much larger than it really is. The steps leading to the top are even steeper and narrower here than on the Pyramid of the Sun.
And therefore, being at the very top and looking down, you do not see where the staircase descends, and it seems that it leads to nowhere, to another silent space, from where there is no return. Scientists have calculated that the construction of only one of the pyramids would require the labor of at least 20 thousand people and would have lasted 20-30 years. The Aztecs considered the "city of the gods" their sacred place, carefully studied it and even carried out archaeological excavations. According to surviving legends, the Aztecs assumed that it was in this place that the fifth sun was born and the fifth era began (the one that ends in 2012).
How does the sun go out?
Those who believe that great states disappeared only in connection with natural disasters or from the sword and fire of conquerors are mistaken. No, sometimes they quietly faded away, leaving the achievements of their culture to aliens, tribes of barbarians, who in Central America were called Chichimeks - "people of canine origin." Nobody knows what kind of tribes they were and where they lived before.
As the legends testify, “they came from the depths of the plains between the rocks”, settled in the cities or near them, mixing with the local population. Little enlightened, but surprisingly capable of assimilation, some of these tribes, faced with an incomprehensible and therefore especially attractive culture, diligently joined it, and then appropriated it for themselves.
The ambitions of the "people of canine origin" were great, and therefore, creating their states on the foundation of the previous ones, they tried to erase the memory of their predecessors, often passing off their achievements as their own. Confidence in the usual interpretation of ancient history based on the Aztec chronicles was thoroughly shaken when archaeologists found traces of the existence of civilizations that preceded the Aztecs: Teotihuacan, Ta-chin, Monte Alban.
And after them, an even more ancient culture of a mysterious people was discovered, around which even today disputes do not subside, sometimes leading researchers to areas far from reality, up to the Atlanteans. During excavations in the town of San Lorenzo, the famous archaeologists Franz Blom and Oliver la Farge discovered monuments of ancient art that are unlike anything else.
Then, in 1924, they were attributed to the Mayan civilization. But already in 1932, George Clapp Vaillant, for the first time using the term "Olmec", singled them out into a separate group.
And then the archaeologist Stirling found a fragment of a stone slab, on one side of which the jaguar god was depicted, and on the other … the date of the Mayan calendar.
Of course, it would be easiest to attribute this find to the Maya, if the year indicated on it was not three centuries "older" than any other dated evidence of the culture of this people. Thus, the concept of "mother culture" was formulated, suggesting that the Olmec civilization is the progenitor of the entire Mesoamerican civilization.
The Olmec civilization existed for about a thousand years and disappeared without a trace. A new culture came to replace it - later named by mankind teotihuacaneka.
As the researchers testify, the Toltecs (warring tribes) put the end of its prosperity. And this happened around 700 AD. So by the arrival of the Aztecs, who appeared in these places in the XII century, the Toltecs themselves had already turned into a legend.
"People of canine origin"
The Aztecs diligently excavated the cities of the Toltecs and collected the objects of art found there. Subsequently, they managed to convince everyone around them, and above all themselves, that they are direct descendants of the builders of the ancient pyramids.
The formation period of the Aztecs was short enough. Their code of conduct was developed in the process of contacts with other Indian peoples, and the main role in this, apparently, was played by the bloody orders of the god Whitzilopochtli.
Announced by the high priest, they were so inhuman, and the practice of their execution so monstrous that there is no need to even explain how peoples with a much deeper history and culture came under the rule of the Aztecs. The fact is that human sacrifice, no matter how widespread it was in ancient history, was nevertheless always considered by the priests as an extreme means of influencing higher powers.
Among the Aztecs, the ritual killing of people served as a "stimulus" to natural unchanging natural phenomena - for example, the rising of the sun and its regular movement across the sky. Every year, at a certain time, the Aztec priests put on their shoulders the skin removed from the killed victims the day before, and wore it without removing it for 20 days.
This wild ritual symbolized among the Aztecs … the welcome of spring and the renewal of nature!
Tens of thousands of people became victims of Aztec ritual murders every year! At the same time, the Aztecs really had high knowledge, at least in astronomy and construction. The Aztecs left behind a lot of illustrated books (they had no written language), jewelry, products made of stone and ceramics - however, all their art was of some depressive nature: terrible masks, distorted by grimaces of the face and skull.
There was an era of the fifth sun - the last sun according to the beliefs of the Aztecs. And then 600 Spanish conquistadors, led by Cortes, landed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
It was February 1519. The Spaniards, where by cunning and cunning, where by courage and force of arms, forced the army of the Aztecs to surrender many times over in number.
Cortez got his way. Except for a few exhibits in the Museum of Anthropology, there is practically nothing in Mexico City that resembles the Aztecs.
Only a few generations have passed, and already the achievements of the Aztec culture have disappeared from the memory of the Mexicans.
