La Jornada: After 20 years, the site museum in the City of the Gods reopens

Teotihuacan, Méx., After being closed for 20 years, today the now called Museum of Teotihuacan Grandeur will reopen, which will be the prelude – with around 174 pieces, including a rubber ball that is more than 3,600 years old – to a “new immersive experience” in the mythical City of the Gods.

This third site of the Mexican archaeological zone is part of the work of the federal Ministry of Culture (SC), along with the remodeling, new scripts and contents, and the modernization of the Cultura Teotihuacana site museums and the Beatriz Ramírez Aguirre de la Fuente Teotihuacan Murals museum, which can now be visited.

Yesterday, during a tour of the pre-Hispanic site led by Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza and Joel Omar Vázquez Herrera, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), among other coordinators and researchers of the institute, it was possible to observe the work carried out in the area for which 37 million pesos were invested, which were destined to modernize services, strengthen heritage conservation and improve the experience of national and international visitors in the World Cup context.

Among the actions, Curiel de Icaza highlighted the work carried out at the main ticket office, the new floors, the renovation and expansion of the signage and the updating of the design of information elements, as well as the places to rest, the security arches in the porches and the metal detectors at the five entrances in the area.

“Security in Teotihuacan, the second most visited site in the country, has been reinforced with elements from all government corporations: 70 elements of the National Guard, who patrol inside and outside the pre-Hispanic site, in addition to guarding the access doors and the protected perimeter of the area. We also have 69 specialized guards from the institute, and from the Auxiliary Police we have 20 elements.”

In addition, the vendors were reorganized and the painting, blacksmithing, lighting and sanitary services were renewed. Also notable is the placement of a kilometer and a half of mesh on the back of the Pyramid of the Moon.

“We built new esplanades to provide more comfortable and orderly access, and we renovated the ticket offices to speed up access,” the official explained.

He added that they reinforced “security with metal detectors and equipment for surveillance personnel; a digital guide was created in order to plan and take advantage of the tourists’ visit.”

Regarding the modernization of the three museums, Curiel de Icaza said that the purpose is to “strengthen the exhibition of heritage and enrich the quality of the visit.”

The Museum of Teotihuacan Greatness will welcome visitors at Gate 1. In addition to the references to the ball game, it emphasizes that “Teotihuacan society was structured under a corporate model, where social groups collectively played a more relevant role than individual people.”

Of the 174 pieces on display, most are being presented in public for the first time and will be part of the permanent collection of the venue. Highlights include anafres, obsidian instruments, offering figurines, domestic materials, female figurines, a pectoral with the representation of a jawbone, funerary urns, markers, Teotihuacan masks, a jaguar head and ceramics, as well as references to The Citadel and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, among screens and other informative elements.

Vázquez Herrera specified: “this venue was at one point a museum; it was neglected in other times and now, with the concern of recovering the space, an investment of almost 7 million pesos was made to recover it with unique, genuine and incomparable pieces. Now it is important to enjoy this museographic script.”

Curiel de Icaza confirmed: “an intervention had not been carried out in Teotihuacan for 30 or 40 years; obviously, conservation is a regular part of our work and does not end today. There are many projects that we are working on and updating, with a clear calendar of action.”

Temple of Quetzalcoatl

Unavoidable was the question to officials about when the conservation and restoration work on the Temple of the Feathered Serpent will begin, of which specialists have warned about the damage caused by humidity, among other factors.

“The necessary amount (the pyramid) will have; however, there is an update of costs because it was done a few years ago, and we asked. There had also been talk that we received a donation, which there was not, because it was just an idea, but that does not mean that it will not be attended to,” explained the head of the Ministry of Culture.

So, he said, “that preliminary project is being updated and reviewed; it is part of this comprehensive plan of what we are addressing right now and will be launched next year, in two stages and two years, to make it comprehensive; if it costs 50 or 70 we will have the necessary investment to address it as part of the conservation.”

The director of the INAH pointed out: “it is very important to point out that its state of conservation is stable; we have had teams of restorers who have given it the necessary maintenance.”

Iris Infante, National Coordinator of Works and Projects of the INAH, commented on the work at the Temple of Quetzalcóatl: “last year we were working hard to perfect this executive project; work was done on the pyramid that is in front precisely to collect data that will help us define the foundation system more precisely.”

This project “is practically finished; we do need to update costs, because they will allow us to have more specific data and a finalized work program. We made a lot of progress last year,” highlighted Infante.

The “new experience” that will mean visiting “the node of attraction” that is Teotihuacan, starting today, in full World Cup effervescence, could change the numbers of the number of visitors, “between 32 and 35 percent of the value of the period”, which is fluctuating.

The current figures show that in 2025 around 1,800,000 people will arrive at the pre-Hispanic site, and every day it receives between 7 and 8 thousand visits, of which 40 percent are foreigners.

The security conditions and the number of visitors draw attention after the shooting on April 20, when an individual shot and caused the death of a Canadian tourist and caused a dozen injuries in the Pyramid of the Moon, which set off alarms around the archaeological zone.