Every spring, as the night wraps Toyama Bay in a blanket of stars, another constellation appears just below the surface of the sea. Glowing blue, pulsing softly, the firefly squid—known in Japan as Hotaru Ika—emerges from the depths in a dazzling marine light show that defies logic and feels like magic.

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.