Which ancient civilization built the city of Teotihuacan near modern Mexico City?

The civilization that built Teotihuacan has not been definitively identified. The monumental city flourished in central Mexico centuries before the Aztecs encountered it, and no surviving evidence securely assigns its foundation to a single known ethnic group.

Teotihuacan began developing around the first century BCE and became one of the largest cities in the ancient Americas. At its height, probably between the third and sixth centuries CE, it may have housed more than 100,000 people and influenced distant regions through trade, political power, and cultural exchange.

The city’s major monuments include the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, the Avenue of the Dead, and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Archaeologists have found evidence of diverse neighborhoods, suggesting that migrants from other parts of Mesoamerica lived there.

The later Aztecs named the abandoned city Teotihuacan, commonly translated as “the place where the gods were created.” Calling the builders Aztecs, Maya, or Toltecs is therefore inaccurate; those labels reflect later peoples or traditions, not a proven identity for Teotihuacan’s founders.