The Retired Shows: Mexico City

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Mexico City

August 9 - 13 we will spend time in Mexico City with the NBA group, Basketball Without Borders. Don will be coaching and I am along for the ride!

Bouquet of flowers in our room to welcome us.

Chocolate welcome!

Very modern and large room.

America's Team Camp
Don is coaching at this team camp involving the best 16/17 year olds from Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Argentina.

TOUR TO TEOTIHUACAN
While Don is busy at camp I take a tour to the ancient pyramids near Mexico City on Thursday.

Teotihuacán ("teh-oh-tee-wa-KHAN") is an ancient sacred site located 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, Mexico. The ruins of Teotihuacán are among the most remarkable in Mexico and some of the most important ruins in the world.
Teotihuacán means "place where gods were born," reflecting the Aztec belief that the gods created the universe here. Constructed around 300 AD, the holy city is characterized by the vast size of its monuments, carefully laid out on geometric and symbolic principles. Its most monumental structures are the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Sun (the third-largest pyramid in the world) and the Pyramid of the Moon.

The main thoroughfare, which archaeologists call the Avenue of the Dead, runs two miles roughly north to south. The Pyramid of the Moon is at the northern end, and the Citadel is on the southern part. The great street was several kilometers long in its prime, but only a kilometer or two has been uncovered and restored. The Avenue of the Dead got its forbidding name from the Aztecs, who wrongly believed the little temples on either side of the avenue were tombs.

We walked the Avenue of the Dead

The purpose of the Pyramid of the Sun is not entirely understood, but it is built on top of a sacred cave shaped like a four-leafed clover. Given the grand pyramid above, this cave was probably regarded as the very place where the gods created the world. The cave is not open to the public.
The first part of the Pyramid of the Sun was probably built around 100 BC, and the temple that used to crown the pyramid was completed about 400 years later (300 AD). By the time the pyramid was discovered and restoration was begun in the 20th century, the temple had disappeared, and the pyramid was just a mass of rubble covered with bushes and trees. It's a worthwhile 248-step climb to the top. The view is extraordinary and the sensation exhilarating.

Pyramid of the Sun as we walked toward it.

Pyramid of the Sun

And here we go UP! No cables to hold onto at this point.

View from the first level

Cables provided in some places.

The Pyramid of the Moon is smaller and faces a plaza at the northern end of the avenue. No cave or other feature has been discovered in its interior. Its form may be patterned on that of the sacred mountain to the north, the Cerro Gordo. The summit provides about the same range of view as you from its larger neighbor because the moon pyramid is built on higher ground.

Pyramid of the moon as view from top of Sun Pyramid

Pyramid of the Moon

At the TOP! Beautiful views of surrounding area and mountains

Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon


My tour group! Thanks to Steven for the help getting up and down!

History of Teotihuacán

The early history of Teotihuacán is shrouded in mystery. Little is known about its ancient builders, including their name, precise religious beliefs, or language. The city became the epicenter of culture and commerce for ancient Mesoamerica, surpassing Rome in size, yet its inhabitants suddenly abandoned it for unknown reasons.
People first moved to the area around 500 BC. Sometime after 100 BC, construction of the enormous Pyramid of the Sun commenced.
At its zenith around 500 AD, Teotihuacán's magnificent pyramids and palaces covered 12 square miles (31 sq km) and the city was larger in size and population than Rome. Through trade and other contact, Teotihuacán's influence was felt as far south as the Yucatán and Guatemala.
Still, remarkably little information about the city's inhabitants survives. Evidence from their murals indicates that the Teotihuacános were formidable warriors and that their aim in warfare was not conquest of territory but the capture of prisoners who were sacrificed to avert the end of the world.
In an effort to postpone this cataclysmic event, humans were sacrificed by the thousands. Humans also seem to have been sacrificed to dedicate a new or expanded building. In the Pyramid of the Sun, the corner of each step contained skeletons of children. Discovered below the Temple of Quetzalcoatl were three burial pits full of skeletons.

Food in Mexico City
The food has been amazing here. We have breakfast at the hotel and every evening the NBA takes us out for dinner. Thursday night we went to Buena Barra and it was spectacular.