Englishman Taken into Custody at UNESCO World Heritage Site "Teotihuacan" Mexico

Instead of taking pictures of aristocrats and glorifying celebrities I chose to photograph the everyday lives of the contemporary Amerindian population and endangered historical landmarks.

Teotihuacan has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Little is known about the people who built it about 2,400 years ago. Whoever they were they had no writing system. Whatever they were it is clear they were a heavily militarized society.  It is believed the site was set afire and abandoned around A.D. 70. The site remained deserted until the Aztecs arrived in A.D. 1200.

The Aztecs named the place "Teotihuacan" which means "the place where gods are born". They named it's street the "Avenue of the Dead" and it's two pyramids the "Pyramid of the Sun" and the "Pyramid of the Moon". The "Pyramid of the Sun" is considered the third largest pyramid in the world.

I had the special privilege of shooting Teotihuacan all to myself for 3 hours last friday. Towards the end I sat upon the Pyramid of the Moon when an English fellow showed up. There was a sign and a rope on the second level of the structure that stated not to pass pending investigation. I told him "Kinda makes you feel cheated". He looked around and stated there was no one here to stop him. He proceeded to climb pass the second level all the way to the top as I photographed him cross the warning line.

Afterwards when he reached the bottom the police were waiting for him. They told him to get in the back of the truck. At this point he started to panic. He called out to his friend and said, "You gotta come with me. I don't want to go alone." His buddy never attempted to climb the pyramid earlier out of fear of highs but did nervously get in the back of the truck with him. At this point they realized the seriousness of the offense. They were driven away to a closed off sector in the rear of the site and were never seen from again.

I simply did not believe what all the fuss was about. The truth of the matter is that Teothuacan is as real as the silver sold by the vendors to the tourist there or the made up stories about who built Teothuacan by these so-called guides. Teothuacan is actually an endangered hopeless site. There is hardly anything original there. All the structures have been re-built from stones brought from elsewhere and the original stones seem to have perhaps ended up as building material for some millionaire's mansion. 

The only truly amazing original structures you will find in or around Mexico City would be what the Almighty Spanish Conquistadors left behind. Take the Cathedral Metropolitana for instance, the largest colonial cathedral in the Americas. It was erected with the rubble of the Aztec Templo Mayor. The Templo Mayor was to the Aztecs their holiest shrine. Upon first entering the temples, the fearless Spanish Conquistadors were overwhelmed with righteous disgust at the gloomy atmosphere and insisted that the temples be destroyed. The temples were razed block by block during the battle for Tenochtitlan by the Conquistadors. The enigmatic Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes immediately symbolically replaced the Aztec Temple Mayor with this church.  Work on the foundation took 42 years alone. The church would end up taking two & a half centuries to complete. The Cathedral Metropolitana has outlasted the site at Teotihuacan. So much for UNESCO sites.