The “Pirámide del Sol” or Pyramid of the Sun is the most monumental edifice in Teotihuacan. Visitors are allowed to climb to its top and this activity is the main attraction of the park. Some say the stairs have 248 steps, others claim the count to be 260, the truth is that we lost count before reaching the first rest area.

It was not that difficult for us to reach the top and we are not the rugged outdoors type. On most of the steps there were soft rails to help your climb. It was not rope but some material that did not burn the hands, which was of great help. We also did not go up in one shot. In the design of the Pyramid there are rest areas between each set of stairs. We waited in each one of these rests until our body where back to normal. As for the height? We figured that the plateau where Teotihuacan sits is at an elevation of some 2300 meters and since we survived that, some 63 meters more would not make any difference.

Coming down was no problem at all. We followed the advice that our guide gave us before we went off in this adventure. When you are coming down look at the next step really well and only to the next step. There were a lot of people that apparently did not follow the advice and had to sit down in mid stairs as if they were trying to record the beautiful landscape in their minds. And should we had felt tired of dizzy, we would have done what they were doing.

We were told that on top of this pyramid, during the glory days of Teotihuacan, there used to be a temple and a rather big statue on its peak. Now there is only a little hill with a square platform at its center. Our guide also said that in the center of the platform there was a mark and if we stood on it a wish would be granted. Well, we could not get to the mark because a man was laying down on the center of the platform and over what we imagined would have been the mark and showed no intentions to move.

When we mentioned to our guide that the man did not allowed us to reach the mark he replied that such man was receiving cosmic energy. Another interesting detail was that we saw many parents taking their infant children all the way to the top, which did not make any sense to us. Once again our guide explained to us another tradition, in this one the parents take up their children to present them to the cosmic energies.

It is believed that when this city was inhabited the Pyramid of the Sun was covered with stucco, with each one of the four sides painted in a different color. Since in reality the name of Pyramid of the Sun was given when it was already in ruins, the theory has emerged that it was not dedicated to the sun but to the six cardinal points. The earth on the platform, one side for each of the same as ours four cardinal points and the sixth side, the top, points to space.

The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid that has ever been restored, and it is the third largest pyramid known. The Great Pyramid of Cheops close by Cairo, Egypt, is the second largest. The Egyptian pyramid has a similar base as the Pyramid of the Sun and twice double its height. The largest pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, also in Mexico, by the city of Puebla, which escaped us once again in this trip.

There are people that believe the Pyramid of the Sun was finished around 200 AD, over sacred caves. Recent researches have founded tunnels within the pyramid, which lead to special rooms. They were plundered from before the arrival of the Europeans to the New World.