Word: teotihuac
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...Aztecs, who came on the pyramids centuries later, called the site Teotihuacán-"the place where men become gods"-and avoided it in awe. Because the pyramids held no gold, the Spaniards were uninterested. Innmodern times, droves of tourists journeyed from Mexico City to climb the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. But, though archaeologists long suspected that there was much more to Teotihuacán (pronounced Tay-o-tee-wah-kan), few spades disturbed the city's deep covering of cactus-grown earth...
...Sacrifice. Last year, at the urging of Mexican archaeologists, President Adolfo López Mateos decided to disinter Teotihuacán and make it the cultural capstone of his administration. With a $1,320,000 grant from the government, Jorge Acosta, one of Mexico's top archaeologists, enlisted 550 laborers to start the picks and shovels working. Behind the diggers came a task force of 37 archaeologists and restorers, carefully gathering everything from stone dartheads to obsidian razor blades. By last week, after the months of excavation, even the most optimistic archaeologists realized that they had vastly underestimated...
...heyday, Teotihuacán supported a population of about 250,000-roughly twice the size of Kansas City, Kans. It was built in concentric rings, and the core was bisected by a wide avenue that archaeologists have called the Avenue of the Dead. In the center were pyramids and temples, markets and assembly plazas; beyond lay homes and farm lands, spreading out miles from the center. It was a brilliantly colored city, says Acosta, "shining red like blood." Palace and temple exteriors were painted with layer upon layer of lime volcanic powder and natural iron oxide, then buffed...
...civic fiesta, a flight over the four-year-old volcano Paricutin, and lunch among the pyramids of Teotihuacán were not all the Mexicans had programmed for Harry Truman's three-day visit. They also had some problems they wanted to discuss...
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