The Mexican government on Tuesday said that a private building project is destroying part of the outskirts of the pre-Hispanic ruin site of Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City.
The Mexican Secretariat of Culture said that it has repeatedly issued stop-work orders since March, but the building crews have ignored them.
The secretariat estimated that at least 25 ancient structures on the site are threatened, and it has filed a criminal complaint against those responsible.
Photo: AP
Apparently, owners of farm plots are trying to turn the land into some sort of amusement park. The area is just outside and across a road from the site’s famous boulevard and pyramid complex.
The UN International Council on Monuments and Sites said that bulldozers threaten to raze as many as 7 hectares at the site, which is a protected area. The council added that looting of artifacts had been detected.
“Teotihuacan is an emblematic site declared as World Heritage by the UNESCO, that represents the highest expression of the identity of the people of Mexico,” the UN council said in a statement.
Mexico has long been unable to enforce building codes and zoning laws or stop illegal construction, in part because of the country’s unwieldy, antiquated legal system.
The destruction so close to the capital raises questions about Mexico’s ability to protect its ancient heritage sites. Teotihuacan is the country’s most visited archeological site, with more than 2.6 million visitors per year, and it has hundreds of smaller, more remote and often unexplored sites.
Teotihuacan is best known for its twin Temples of the Sun and Moon, but it was actually a large city that housed more than 100,000 inhabitants and covered about 20km2.
The still mysterious city was one of the largest in the world at its apex between 100 BC and 750, but it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in the 14th century.
Even its true name remains unclear. Its current name was given to it by the Aztecs.
However, the Aztecs might have called the city “Teohuacan” — literally “the city of the sun” — rather than Teotihuacan, which means “city of the gods” or “place where men become gods.”
The Pyramids of the Sun or Moon used to draw tens of thousands of visitors for the spring and fall equinoxes each year, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese