By Mildred Boyd. When it was still night, When there was no day,
When there was no light, The Gods convened, There at
Teotihuacan. Legend says that two of those Gods agreed to
immolate themselves in the sacred fire to become the sun and the
moon, bringing life to the darkened world. Teotihuacan, where
time and creation began, became the Holy City of Mesoamerica.
Though its streets had been deserted for seven centuries and its
far-flung mercantile/military empire was only a memory, rulers
like Moctezuma II still made pilgrimages there in troubled times
seeking guidance from the old gods. Even today, the ruins of the
great city are awe-inspiring. Laid out on a formal grid and
covering some 40 square kilometers, it was home to an estimated
150,000 to 200,000 people in its heyday. Two wide avenues,
oriented east of north, met at the Cuidadela (Great Compound); a
low rectangular platform some 400 meters square which was once
topped by temples facing inward on what was probably the
principal market. A central altar