Q 01/05

The ruins of Teotihuacan lie within 50 km of which modern metropolis?

A) Guadalajara

B) Mexico City

C) Monterrey

D) Cancún

Answer · why

B) Mexico City

Mexico City. Close as it is to the old Aztec heartland, Teotihuacan was no Aztec creation: it had stood empty for centuries before they first saw it.

Q 02/05

The Aztec name Teotihuacan is usually glossed as what?

A) Place of reeds

B) Birthplace of the gods

C) Hill of the serpent

D) House of the jaguar

Answer · why

B) Birthplace of the gods

Birthplace of the gods. The Aztecs coined the name centuries after the city emptied; what its own people called it has never been recovered.

Q 03/05

Who built Teotihuacan?

A) The Aztecs

B) An unknown people

C) The Classic Maya

D) The Toltecs

Answer · why

B) An unknown people

An unknown people. Even their language is lost; the Aztecs only found the ruins centuries later, and the Toltecs once credited with the city rose long...

Q 04/05

Why did the Aztecs call Teotihuacan's main street the Avenue of the Dead?

A) They took its platforms for tombs

B) Captives were marched along it

C) It led to a royal cemetery

D) Plague victims were burned there

Answer · why

A) They took its platforms for tombs

They took its platforms for tombs. The mounds lining the avenue were really the bases of temples and palaces, so the name records an Aztec mistake, no...

Q 05/05

Along with the Nahua, which two peoples are the leading candidates for the city's main ethnic group?

A) Maya and Olmec

B) Otomi and Totonac

C) Huastec and Tarascan

D) Zapotec and Mixtec

Answer · why

B) Otomi and Totonac

Many scholars think the city was multi-ethnic, with migrants arriving from across Mesoamerica.