Introduction—No Nile? No problem!

Most of the world’s earliest cities arose near rivers like the Euphrates or the Nile. Cities need farms to produce large amounts of food. Rivers make farming a lot easier.

Rivers were key to the growth of many urbanized societies. An urbanized society is one that develops large cities. In most places, urbanized societies first formed near major rivers. Consider Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China, for example. But in some places urbanized societies developed without big rivers.

Consider Mesoamerica. Today, this region consists of Mexico and Central America. During the Classic Period (100–900 CE),¹ it became one of the most urbanized regions on Earth. Mesoamerica doesn’t have many large rivers. Yet, some of the earliest and largest cities in the Americas developed there.

Classic Maya

There are few rivers between Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala. The soil is poor. Yet, somehow, the Maya city-states did very well in this environment. The Maya cleverly overcame the problems they faced. They engineered the land to redirect and store water in reservoirs and canals. At their high point, the various Maya city-states held about 14 million people.

So what led to their downfall? The people of these city-states depended on the system that collected, stored, and distributed water. That system was controlled by a ruling class of kings and priests. However, when a series of droughts arrived in the ninth century, the ruling class lost its control over the population. After that, everything fell apart.

The Maya people didn’t disappear. Today, millions of their descendants still live in Central America and Mexico. However, many of the great Maya cities were destroyed.

Teotihuacan: City of the Gods

The city of Teotihuacan was the largest city in Mesoamerica during the Classic Period. We do not know much about the people that built this city. Its people left no written records. Our only clues are the stones of ruined buildings, some artwork, and burial chambers.

By the fifth century CE, Teotihuacan was home to 200,000 people. It was one of the largest cities in the world at the time.

The people of the city built three large pyramids. Today, these are still standing. The Pyramid of the Sun is the world’s third-largest pyramid. It stands 216 feet tall. Its top may once have been a temple to the god of fire. On the north side of the city, the Pyramid of the Moon rises 151 feet. It contains burial chambers filled with statues alongside the bones of humans and animals. To the south is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcóatl). It is the smallest of the temples. However, it is also the most beautifully decorated. It was a center of Teotihuacan’s social life.

Teotihuacan sits in the Mexican highlands. The dry season there lasted eight months. But like the Maya cities, Teotihuacan overcame this problem by building wells and canals. During the rainy seasons, these were used to collect water. During the dry seasons, they were used to water the crops.

Origins of Teotihuacan

We don’t know much about the people who built Teotihuacan, but we can make some educated guesses. Teotihuacan was the most important center of trade in Mesoamerica. Its huge market was once filled with goods. Its streets were filled with merchants from distant cities.

Why was Teotihuacan such a major trading center? Obsidian. Obsidian is a black volcanic glass. It was used for making tools and weapons. Teotihuacan controlled most of the obsidian in the region. Metalworking was rare in Mesoamerica. For that reason, obsidian was all-important for everyday life and military power. Controlling it allowed Teotihuacan to be the biggest force in regional trade.

Trade and obsidian are two possible reasons Teotihuacan was settled and grew so large. But there are other possibilities. Teotihuacan may have been an important religious site. People might have moved there to worship their gods long before it became a center of trade.

Whatever the reason people moved to Teotihuacan, it was a city of immigrants. People from all over Mesoamerica made their home there. Many probably
arrived as enslaved prisoners of war.

Teotihuacan society was divided into upper and lower classes. Large palaces surround the pyramids. The homes of the ruling class were decorated with colorful murals. Thousands of smaller apartments were neatly arranged around the city. These housed the workers who produced the city’s trade goods.

Some scholars believe Teotihuacan was the center of a huge empire. They believe it conquered several of the Maya city-states. However, there is no way to be sure.

Mystery of collapse

Teotihuacan fell in 550 CE, after a large fire destroyed much of the city. The cause of the fire is uncertain. A fire alone generally doesn’t mean a society’s end, so the reason for Teotihuacan’s fall remains a mystery. Some scholars blame foreign invaders. Others believe the city became less important as trade lessened. Some believe there was an uprising of the people against the ruling class. Others claim Teotihuacan fell because of drought. They believe it began to rain so little the city could not continue to exist.

Even after its fall, the influence of Teotihuacan lived on. Later Aztec architecture and religion was shaped by what was found in Teotihuacan. In modern times, digs turn up new discoveries every year. Each discovery improves our understanding of this great city.

1 Historians use different period names for different regions. For Europe, they talk about the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. Chinese history is divided into different dynasties. For Mesoamerica, historians use yet another set of periods. It includes the Preclassic (2000 BCE–100 CE), Classic, and Postclassic (900–1521) periods.