Editing Teotihuacan (section)

===Site layout===
The city's broad central [[Avenue (landscape)|avenue]], called "Avenue of the Dead" (a translation from its Nahuatl name ''Miccaotli''), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense [[Pyramid of the Sun]] (third largest in the world after the [[Great Pyramid of Cholula]] and the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]]). [[Pyramid of the Moon]] and The Ciudadela with [[Temple of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan|Temple of the Feathered Serpent]] are placed at both ends of the Avenue while [[Quetzalpapálotl|Palace-museum Quetzalpapálot]], the fourth basic structure of the site, is situated between two main pyramids. Along the Avenue are many smaller talud-tablero platforms as well. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the name of the avenue. Scholars have now established that these were ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

[[File:Teotihucan layout.gif|thumb|A recreation of a map of the city featured in the June 1967 issue of Scientific American and the captioned source.]]

The Avenue of the Dead is roughly 40 meters wide and 4&nbsp;km long.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pueblosoriginarios.com/meso/valle/teotihuacan/muertos.html|title=Calzada de los Muertos. Zona arqueológica de Teotihuacan|website=pueblosoriginarios.com|access-date=2017-09-16}}</ref> Further down the Avenue of the Dead, after a small river, is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city. The name "Citadel" was given to it by the Spanish, who believed it was a fort. Most of the common people lived in large apartment buildings spread across the city. Many of the buildings contained workshops where artisans produced pottery and other goods.

The urban layout of Teotihuacan exhibits two slightly different orientations, which resulted from both astronomical and topographic criteria. The central part of the city, including the Avenue of the Dead, conforms to the orientation of the Sun Pyramid, while the southern part reproduces the orientation of the Ciudadela. The two constructions recorded sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar. The orientation of the Sun Pyramid was intended to record "the sunrises on February 11 and October 29 and sunsets on April 30 and August 13. The interval from February 11 and October 29, as well as from August 13 to April 30, is exactly 260 days".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Šprajc |first1=Ivan |title=Astronomical alignments at Teotihuacan, Mexico |journal=Latin American Antiquity |date=2000 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=406|doi=10.2307/972004 |jstor=972004 |s2cid=55054050 }}</ref> The recorded intervals are multiples of 13 and 20 days, which were elementary periods of the Mesoamerican calendar. Furthermore, the Sun Pyramid is aligned to Cerro Gordo to the north, which means that it was purposefully built on a spot where a structure with a rectangular ground plan could satisfy both topographic and astronomical requirements. The artificial cave under the pyramid additionally attests to the importance of this spot.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Šprajc |first1=Ivan |title=Astronomy, Architecture, and Landscape in Prehispanic Mesoamerica |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |date=2018 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=197–251 |doi=10.1007/s10814-017-9109-z |s2cid=149439162 }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal |last1=Šprajc |first1=Ivan |title=Astronomical alignments at Teotihuacan, Mexico |journal=Latin American Antiquity |date=2000 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=403–415|doi=10.2307/972004 |jstor=972004 |s2cid=55054050 }}</ref>

Another example of artificial landscape modifications is the course of the San Juan River, which was modified to bend around the structures as it goes through the center of town eventually returning to its natural course outside of Teotihuacan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aveni |first1=Anthony |title=Skywatchers |date=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=United States of America |page=223}}</ref>

[[File:Toilet_in_Teotihuacan.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Toilet in Teotihuacan.]]
Pecked-cross circles throughout the city and in the surrounding regions served as a way to design the urban grid, and as a way to read their 260-day calendar. The urban grid had great significance to city planners when constructing Teotihuacan, as the cross is pecked into the ground in the Pyramid of the Sun in specific places throughout Teotihuacan in precise degrees and angles over three km in distance. The layout of these crosses suggests it was there to work as a grid to the layout of Teotihuacan because they are laid out in a rectangular shape facing the Avenue of the Dead. The direction of the axes of the crosses don't point to an astronomical North and South direction but instead point to their own city's North. Numerology also has significance in the cross pecking because of the placement and amount of the holes, which sometimes count to 260 days, the length of the ritual calendrical cycle.<ref name=Aveni>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1126/science.202.4365.267| pmid=17817633|bibcode = 1978Sci...202..267A|title = The Pecked Cross Symbol in Ancient Mesoamerica| journal=Science| volume=202| issue=4365| pages=267–86|last1 = Aveni|first1 = Anthony F.| last2=Hartung| first2=Horst| last3=Buckingham| first3=Beth| year=1978| s2cid=28670682}}</ref> Some of the pecked-cross circles also resemble an ancient Aztec game called, [[patolli]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aveni |first1=Anthony |title=Skywatchers |date=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=United States of America |page=333}}</ref>
[[File:Tunnel in the Avenue of the Dead at Teotihuacan.jpg|thumb|A tunnel under steps in the Great Compound along the Avenue of the Dead.]]
These pecked-cross circles can be found not just in Teotihuacan, but also throughout Mesoamerica. The ones found all share certain similarities. These include having the shape of two circles, one being inside of the other. They are all found pecked on the ground or onto rocks. They are all created with a small hammer-like device that produces cuplike markings that are 1 centimeter in diameter and 2 centimeters apart. They all have axes that are in line with the city structures of the region. Because they are aligned with the structures of the cities, they also align with the position of significant astronomical bodies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aveni |first1=Anthony |title=Skywatchers |date=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=United States of America |page=330}}</ref>

The Ciudadela was completed during the Miccaotli phase, and the Pyramid of the Sun underwent a complex series of additions and renovations. The Great Compound was constructed across the Avenue of the Dead, west of Ciudadela. This was probably the city's marketplace. The existence of a large market in an urban center of this size is strong evidence of state organization. Teotihuacan was at that point simply too large and too complex to have been politically viable as a chiefdom.

The Ciudadela is a great enclosed plaza capable of holding 100,000 people. About 700,000 cubic meters (yards) of material were used to construct its buildings. Its central feature is the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, which was flanked by upper-class apartments. The entire compound was designed to overwhelm visitors.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}