Thousands Pray At Pyramid Of The Sun

Thousands of worshipers prayed Friday amid clouds of incense and pounding drums at the Pyramid of the Sun in a re-creation of the ancient spring equinox rite.

Flute music floated through the air as Mexicans in white linen shirts and scarlet headbands stood atop the 185-foot pyramid, a monument to ancient Indian cultures, their palms stretched out toward the rising sun.

“Hail Teotihuacan! Hail the Sun!” they chanted as others clutched quartz stones, sunburned tourists clicked cameras and Indian men in feathered head dresses danced wildly.

Each year pilgrims stream to the sun temple and adjacent Pyramid of the Moon, located in Mexico’s most famous Indian ghost town, Teotihuacan, a pre-Hispanic center of trading and ceremony set in cactus-studded highlands.

Revisiting ancient times is becoming increasingly popular with Mexicans seeking solace from the big-city stresses of crime and crowding, pollution and poverty, peso devaluations and political crises.