Teotihuacán
The Pyramid of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead, a city abandoned a thousand years before the Aztecs.
Duration
5 hrs – 7 hrs
Difficulty
●●●●○
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
210 MXN
The city held up to a hundred and twenty-five thousand people and covered twenty square kilometres: it was one of the largest cities in the world around AD 500. It was abandoned around 550, for reasons still argued over, and its original name is lost.
The Aztecs found it in ruins seven centuries later and believed it built by gods: Teotihuacán is a Nahuatl word, not the name its builders used. The Avenue of the Dead runs two kilometres, linking the Pyramid of the Moon to the citadel.
Getting there
Fifty kilometres north-east of Mexico City, an hour by road. Buses from the Terminal del Norte, frequent in the morning.
What the price covers
general entry; half price for Mexicans and residents, free for them on Sunday, and for under-13s and over-60s.
What to bring
- 1.5 L of water
- Cap
- Sunscreen
- Sportswear
Rules on site
The site is at two thousand three hundred metres, unshaded, and the ultraviolet is very strong: hat, water and sunscreen even under cloud. Climbing the main pyramids has been closed for several years.
Checked on 29 August 2026 at INAH — Teotihuacan archaeological zone
Other places in Mexico City
- Zócalo and cathedralThe largest square in Latin America, built on the Aztec ceremonial centre.
- Templo MayorThe great temple of Tenochtitlán, found under the colonial city while digging for electricity.
- Coyoacán and the Casa AzulThe colonial quarter where Frida Kahlo was born, lived and died, in a blue house.
- Chapultepec ParkThe largest urban park in Latin America, with the anthropology museum inside it.