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It's one of the main stops in my Teotihuacan guide, together with the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Avenue of the Dead. And if you're still planning your trip, my Plan Your Visit page has the hours, tickets and how to get there.
It's a pyramid temple built around 200 to 250 CE for the feathered serpent, one of the most important gods in ancient Mexico. It's the third biggest pyramid at Teotihuacan, after the Sun and the Moon.
The temple sits inside the Ciudadela, a huge square courtyard of about 15 hectares (38 acres) with a wall of platforms all the way around it. The Spanish called it La Ciudadela, "the citadel", because it looked like a fort to them, but it was NOT a fort. Archaeologists think it was the political and religious center of the city, and the rulers may have lived in the two big compounds right next to the temple.
The name Quetzalcoatl comes from the Aztecs, and they only found the city in the 1400s, hundreds of years after it was abandoned. So we still don't know what the people of Teotihuacan called this god, and that's why you'll see both names.
If you want the full story of who built the city and why they left, read my Teotihuacan history page.
The front of the temple has two kinds of big stone heads. The first one is the feathered serpent, with its mouth open, big fangs and a ring of feathers around the head. And the second one is a flatter, square head with two round rings on top.
For a long time guides said the second head was Tlaloc, the rain god. Now a lot of archaeologists think it's a headdress, or a different kind of serpent, and nobody knows for sure. Also, look between the heads, because the serpent bodies are carved along the wall with seashells all around them, and if you look close you can still see small traces of the original paint.
The question I get the most here is if the heads are real. They are, and they're in such good shape because the people of Teotihuacan later built a new platform right in front of the temple, called the Adosada. That platform covered the carved front for hundreds of years, and it was only about 100 years ago that an archaeologist called Manuel Gamio dug it out again.
In the 1980s archaeologists found more than 200 people buried in and around the temple. They were sacrificed when the temple was built, as part of the ceremony to open it.
A lot of them had their hands tied behind their backs. Some were dressed like warriors, with obsidian points and necklaces in the shape of human jaws, and a few of those necklaces were made from REAL jaws. So this temple tells you a lot about how powerful the rulers of Teotihuacan were, and it's a story most people never hear because the burials are all underground now.
In 2003, after heavy rain, a hole opened in the ground right in front of the temple. An archaeologist from INAH called Sergio Gomez went down and found a tunnel about 17 meters underground, running about 100 meters until it reaches the space under the pyramid.
It took his team more than 10 years to dig it out by hand, and they found tens of thousands of objects inside, like jade, seashells, mirrors made of pyrite, and even pools of liquid mercury. Archaeologists think the tunnel was a sacred place that copied the underworld.
The tunnel is closed to the public, so you can't go inside. But our guides show you where it starts when we stop in the Ciudadela :)
If you like numbers, I put the dates and sizes for every monument on my Teotihuacan facts and statistics page with the source for each one.
Yes, and it's included in the normal ticket, which is $210 MXN (about $12 USD) if you're not Mexican or a resident. The site is open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, last entry is 4:30 PM, and the opening hours post has the details.
You walk up the steps of the Ciudadela wall, down into the courtyard, and then around the Adosada platform to the carved front. You can't climb the temple itself, but you get really close to the heads.
The Ciudadela is at the south end of the Avenue of the Dead, at the opposite end from the Pyramid of the Moon. So if you start at the Moon, it's a long walk with NO shade, and that's why so many people are too tired to go all the way down. I recommend to see it first or plan your route with my Teotihuacan map, and bring a hat, sunscreen and water. My what to wear to Teotihuacan list has everything to pack.
You can get to the site by bus, Uber or with a tour, and I explain each one in my how to get to Teotihuacan guide. For every price in one place, see how much it costs to go to Teotihuacan, and if you're fitting it into a busy day, my how much time you need at Teotihuacan post helps. And if you're going on the spring equinox, read my spring equinox guide first because it gets VERY crowded.
Not every tour goes this far, so check before you book. All our tours are in English, we pick you up and drop you off at your hotel or Airbnb, your tickets are included, groups are 15 people max and we never stop at tourist trap shops.
Every tour has our 100% "Love It or Your Money Back" guarantee, and you can cancel or reschedule for FREE up to 24 hours before.
If you want a Teotihuacan tour or a sunrise hot air balloon above the pyramids... that's what me and my team do. You can compare every tour side by side and pick the one that fits you :)
Comparing sites? See my list of the best pyramids near Mexico City.
