Teoti­hua­can means “city of the gods”. Now the city is desert­ed, but once it was inhab­it­ed by more than two hun­dred thou­sand peo­ple. The lay­out is strik­ing: the reg­u­lar lines of streets form quar­ters and at the same time are strict­ly per­pen­dic­u­lar to the main avenue. In the cen­ter of the city there is a huge square with mas­sive pyra­mids on plat­forms. Teoti­hua­can was built accord­ing to an elab­o­rate plan and pros­pered. But in the 7th cen­tu­ry it was aban­doned. Why is unclear. Either because of a for­eign inva­sion, or because of a pop­u­lar upris­ing.