Few things at Teotihuacan have generated as much debate among specialists as this mural. It is located at Tepantitla, an elite residential compound situated northwest of the site, near Gate 4. It is neither the largest nor the most visible mural in the city—yet no other painted composition at Teotihuacan has raised more questions: who commissioned it, what exactly it represents, and whether the name by which it has been known for the past 80 years bears any real relation to what its creators intended to convey.

In the principal room of Tepantitla—a residential complex occupied between 225 and 650 CE—this mural unfolds across two superimposed registers, representing distinct planes of the world. In the upper section, a large central figure displays attributes associated with the water deity. On either side, secondary figures move across cultivated fields where plants are shown growing. The lower register is what makes this painted composition truly singular within the Teotihuacan pictorial tradition. In contrast to the formal rigidity and monumental scale that characterize many of the city’s paintings, dozens of small figures appear here in full motion: people swimming, dancing, cutting flowers, chasing butterflies, and playing the ballgame. 

The background is red and framed by aquatic borders, while the entire scene seems to emerge from a mountain from which streams flow outward to nourish the surrounding fields.

The ballgame

One of the most significant findings associated with this mural is the confirmation that the ballgame was practiced at Teotihuacan. Before this pictorial program was discovered, scholars debated whether the city had ever engaged in this ritual practice, so deeply embedded in the ceremonial life of the Mesoamerican world. The mural at Tepantitla remains, to this day, the only known visual evidence of the ballgame in Teotihuacan.

The crying figure

One of the most striking details in the mural appears in its lower right corner. While the surrounding figures dance and play, a solitary figure stands motionless atop a spring. Several speech scrolls emerge from his mouth, as though he were pronouncing a prayer or intoning a ritual chant. Above them appear a butterfly—associated with fire and transformation—and a cluster of clouds. Tears descend from his eyes, evoking the ritual power of weeping, while from his chest flows a stream of red and blue liquid—perhaps blood and water intertwined—that connects directly to the spring beneath his feet.

The name

This interpretation was proposed in the mid-20th century by Alfonso Caso, who identified the mural as a depiction of Tlalocan—the paradise of Tlaloc, the Mexica god of rain and water. Yet Teotihuacan predates the Mexica world by many centuries, and the mural’s central figure appears to be female. This has led some scholars to associate the image more closely with Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of flowing water, or with what researchers have termed the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan. It has also been argued that the human figures in the lower register do not represent souls in paradise, but living individuals engaged in scenes of agricultural and ceremonial life under the protection of the water deity.

Drawing on the work of various scholars, interpretations have ranged from the identification of the scene as Tamoanchan—a sacred mythical paradise—proposed by Alfredo López Austin, to the symbolic constellation advanced by Jennie Quintero. Others, including Karl Taube and Esther Pasztory, have interpreted the central figure as Xochiquetzal or as the so-called Spider Goddess. The debate remains open. What is beyond dispute is that this mural endures as one of the most complex and extraordinary visual documents of the Teotihuacan world.

Visiting today

Tepantitla lies outside the site’s main circuit, roughly a 10-minute walk northeast of the Pyramid of the Sun. It is one of the three residential compounds open to the public, alongside Atetelco and La Ventilla. Once inside, visitors should make their way to the principal room of the complex, where the mural is located. A large-scale reproduction of this painted composition is also displayed in the Teotihuacan Hall of the Museo Nacional de Antropología, in Mexico City.