A Parallel Between Egypt and Mesoamerica

In this weeks reading assignments we have focused on the great city of Teotihuacan--located in the Valley of Mexico. Teotihuacan meaning "the place of the gods" according to Rene Millon would have been the sixth largest city in the world in AD 550, with population estimates of 125,000 thousand people. The photograph shown of page 72-73 (Miller 4th ed.) of an isometric view of Teotihuacan shows just how massive these city was. The Pyramid of the Moon to the north, the Pyramid of the Sun also north, then the Way of the Dead and south Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

It is interesting to me that we call these people primitive. Their architectural design skills are most intriguing. How is it that such massive structures could be built? today we use cranes, trucks and tractors, massive man power and of course modern tools and technology to create massive high-rise buildings, bridges, and other structures. Yet these relatively small people were able to create whole metropolitan cities without the help of modern technology.

As I study history I always think back to the biblical stories found in the Kings James version of the bible. I'm not a religious person but I do believe the bible is a historical book documentation individuals accounts of history.

I imagine that the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Mexico are descended from Africa. This explains to me the connection between the great pyramids of Egypt and those of mesoamerica. There is a correlation between the religious practices of Egyptian and Greek mythology and that of mesoamerican religious practices. The mummification of bodies and the importance of the under world, tombs and the artifacts found in them representing the belief of an after life and the sacrificial ceremonies to the gods.