Yesterday afternoon we visited the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon at Teotihuacan. I’m always reminding my kids that “history,” as we know it, is very Eurocentric and therefore to always look for alternative narratives and diverse angles from which to view the human story. What a great lesson we got from Teotihuacan: “Around 300 BCE, people of the central and southeastern area of Mesoamerica began to gather into larger settlements. Teotihuacan was the largest center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs. The city had already been in ruins for 500 years by the time it was discovered by the Aztecs. It is thought to have been established around 100 BC. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 – 250,000, making it one of the largest cities in the world during its epoch.” The city is stunning on account of how beautifully organized it was, the geometrical symmetry and integrity of its architecture, its apartment complexes and elevated temples, the level of astronomy and mathematics that its inhabitants were obviously familiar with, and so much more. Wish we knew more about this fascinating civilization and so many other ancient people – e.g. the Indus River people who built Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (now in Pakistan) around 6000 BCE. There is much in the world apart from Europe 🙂
