NARRATOR: Mexico City. Beneath the current-day
capital of Mexico lie the ruins of the
ancient Aztec metropolis known as Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs dominated much of
central Mexico from the 14th to the 16th century
AD, and Tenochtitlan is considered to be their
first official settlement-- an incredibly sophisticated
city featuring a grid system of canals and causeways. But according to their
historical texts, the Aztec civilization
did not originate here. [music playing] EDWIN BARNHART:
The Aztecs say they started from this place up in
the north called Chicomoztoc. It was a cave, and
inside that cave, it had seven different caverns. And there were said to be
seven different tribes. And the Aztecs say they were
part of the seven tribes that came from the seven
chambers of Chicomoztoc. NARRATOR: While
Chicomoztoc was once thought to be a
mythological place, some scholars believe
archeological evidence suggests that it really did
exist, and is located at the site of the
ancient pyramid complex known today as Teotihuacan. [music playing] EDWIN BARNHART: The
place of seven caves-- we think maybe that has actually
been located archeologically at the sight of the main
temple of Teotihuacan, called the Pyramid of
the Sun, which sits just north of the valley of Mexico. Underneath it is actually a
cave with seven different spots that it extends out
into, and that's where the Aztecs said their
original ancestors came from. [music playing] NARRATOR: In the 16th century,
Spanish chronicler Gerónimo de Mendieta recorded the legends
of the local native population. According to their
accounts, the Aztec believed that they
were fashioned by a group of stranded gods
within these seven caves. JONATHAN YOUNG: Mendieta wrote
an account of Aztec legend. In this report, he describes
a giant flint knife landing on the earth. And the earth was trembling and
shaking as this enormous flint knife landed. Then, some 1,600 gods
disgorged from this thing. And they are responsible for
launching Aztec civilization. [music playing] EDWIN BARNHART: The Aztecs talk
about the many gods coming down to earth and creating humans. They create them out of bone,
ash, and their own blood. And they make them somewhat
in their own image, but they make them specifically
so that they will honor them and they will serve them. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
All of a sudden, there is a description
of a giant flint knife that descended
from the sky, and somebody emerged out of it. One has to wonder whether
or not our ancestors were witness to a landing
of some type of a craft. If so, then the
Aztec story suggests that at some point
in our history, extraterrestrials
created mankind. And something very strange
was going on at Teotihuacan. NARRATOR: Located just 30
miles northeast of Mexico City, the Teotihuacan complex
encompasses nearly eight square miles, and is dated
to the first century A.D. It is the oldest and
most sophisticated city of Mesoamerica,
an area that extends from northern Mexico
down through central America. [music playing] The civilization predated the
Maya by at least 100 years. At its peak, it was
said to have supported nearly 100,000 residents. It was also the largest city in
the entire Western hemisphere prior to the 15th
century, and served as the major commerce
and religious center for the region. EDWIN BARNHART: The
significance of Teotihuacan cannot be overstated. It is the Rome of Mesoamerica. The things that Teotihuacan
did set the pattern for all other city-states after it. NARRATOR: The central
features of the complex are two large pyramids, known
as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of
the Moon, as well as a temple dedicated
to Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent. [music playing] These structures stand alongside
a thoroughfare referred to as the Avenue of the Dead. Over 200 smaller buildings,
platforms, and pyramids are found adjacent
to the avenue, and there are thousands
of living quarters just outside the complex. But as incredible
as Teotihuacan is, no one knows exactly who
built this metropolis or what happened
to its occupants. EDWIN BARNHART: Teotihuacan,
despite its size, has no hieroglyphs whatsoever. There are other cultures
in Mesoamerica that were using writing systems. There's nothing like
that at Teotihuacan. So we don't really have a
clear history of what happened at Teotihuacan,
and we can't really find evidence of their rulers. --to develop a complete,
huge complex, citadel-- WILL HART: We have such
a sophisticated site that embodies engineering
principles, craftsmanship, art. Where did it originate? Where are the smaller
versions of this? Well, we don't find any. So we don't have a
progression, an evolution to show where this came from. So we have to ask,
where did it come from? DAVID WILCOCK: We've
become conditioned to look at these awesome
works of stone architecture and think, oh, primitive
people did that, and they used primitive methods
and primitive technology. But we have to rethink the
fundamental assumptions and come to a greater and
greater level of understanding that the technology required to
build these artifacts, in fact, is greater than anything
that they possessed.
