City of the Gods

October 1, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

City of the Gods

In 2003, torrential rains swept through the ruins of Teotihuacan, the ancient pyramid complex just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, leaving a three-foot-wide sinkhole at the foot of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. When archaeologists entered the cavity, they found a tunnel leading to chambers filled with jade statues and ceramics. But in April 2015, after twelve years of excavation, they made a far stranger discovery directly under the center of the pyramid: a vast pool of liquid mercury. The only other site in the world where liquid mercury has been found in such a context is the tomb of China's first emperor.

The City That Has No History

Teotihuacan is the oldest and most sophisticated city of Mesoamerica, predating the Maya by at least a hundred years. At its peak, it supported nearly 100,000 residents and was the largest city in the entire Western Hemisphere prior to the 15th century. Edwin Barnhart, director of the Maya Exploration Center, calls it "the Rome of Mesoamerica—the things that Teotihuacan did set the pattern for all other city-states after it."

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What you'll learn

1 (01:03) **Teotihuacan: A Spaceport of the Gods?** - The episode opens with the core mystery: Teotihuacan may contain exotic technology, including liquid mercury (a superconductor), suggesting it was an advanced ancient spaceport.
2 (02:07) **The Aztec Origin Story: The Seven Caves** - The Aztecs believed their civilization began at Chicomoztoc, a cave with seven chambers, which may be the cave under the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.
3 (04:03) **The "Stranded Gods" and the Flint Knife** - Spanish chronicles record Aztec legends of 1,600 gods emerging from a giant flint knife that landed on Earth, suggesting a spacecraft landing.
4 (05:39) **The Mystery of Teotihuacan's Builders** - Despite being the largest and most sophisticated city in the ancient Americas, no one knows who built it or what happened to them, as it has no hieroglyphs or clear history.
5 (09:16) **The "City of the Gods"** - Local lore from multiple cultures points to Teotihuacan being founded by sky gods, including Quetzalcoatl from Venus, reinforcing the idea of extraterrestrial visitation.
6 (10:31) **Evidence of a Cataclysmic Past** - The pyramids are built in layers, with the oldest layers showing the most advanced techniques, and the site was buried under 12 feet of earth, suggesting a catastrophic flood.
7 (15:13) **The Discovery of Liquid Mercury** - In 2015, a vast pool of liquid mercury was found under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, a substance that requires a complex extraction process and is highly toxic.

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Show Notes

The ancient site of Teotihuacan in central Mexico–which the Aztecs called the “City of the Gods”–is one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

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