Picture yourself wandering the colorful, cobbled streets of Guanajuato, a colonial-era city with alleyways that twist like an Escher drawing. You round a corner, and suddenly — there it is. A man made of bronze. Or is it stone? You pause. Then blink. He blinks back. Startled laughter erupts around you — because that statue? It’s alive.

Just 40 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, the ruins of an ancient metropolis rise from the Valley of Mexico like a cosmic mystery waiting to be solved. Welcome to Teotihuacán — the "Place Where Gods Were Born" — a city so ancient and enigmatic, even the mighty Aztecs didn’t know who built it.