Avenue of the Dead

The Avenue of the Dead is the great north-south axis of Teotihuacan, two kilometres of the visible city laid out as a single ceremonial boulevard about forty metres wide. Stone platforms with stepped facades line the route on either side. Walking the whole length from the Ciudadela at the south to the Pyramid of the Moon at the north takes an hour at a steady pace, with stops; the central section between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Plaza of the Moon is the best preserved.

Beyond the surviving stones, the Avenue is the key to understanding the city. Its orientation, its scale, and the way it visually connects the pyramids to the surrounding mountains is what made Teotihuacan one of the first great planned cities in the Americas. Bring water — there is no shade on the Avenue itself.

things to do sight
A story
The Avenue's Nahuatl name — Miccaotli, given much later by the Aztecs — meant 'road of the dead' because they thought the platforms lining it were tombs of the gods. They were wrong about the tombs but right that the road was sacred. The city's founders laid the Avenue out fifteen and a half degrees east of north so that on two specific days each year (12 August and 29 April) the setting sun would frame the route between the pyramids — almost certainly the days that marked the start and end of the agricultural year.