Mesoamerica — Teotihuacan & the Maya

Around the time Augustus was transforming Rome into a city of marble, something was taking shape in the Valley of Mexico. A city was rising on the high plateau northeast of modern Mexico City, a metropolis so vast and so precisely planned that centuries later, when the Aztecs stumbled upon its ruins, they assumed only the gods could have built it. They called it A massive ancient city in the Valley of Mexico, flourishing from roughly 100 BCE to 550 CE. At its height it held 125,000 or more residents, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Its builders remain unidentified — even the city's original name is unknown. "Teotihuacan" is an Aztec word meaning "the place where the gods were created." — "the place where the gods were created."

Here is what we do not know about Teotihuacan: who built it. What language its people spoke. What they called themselves. What they called their city. Unlike the Maya, whose inscriptions we can now read, the people of Teotihuacan left no deciphered texts. Their identity is a hole in the historical record the size of a civilization.

By 400 CE, Teotihuacan was home to at least 125,000 people, possibly more. That made it one of the six or seven largest cities on Earth, roughly comparable in population to Roman Alexandria. It covered more than 20 square kilometers. And it was not some organic sprawl that grew haphazardly over centuries. It was planned — deliberately, precisely, ambitiously planned.