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Amid the spectacular ruins of the new world, the story of Atlantis would now take a different turn, becoming the focus for one man's bold quest to discover the truth about his country and himself. 30 miles from modern-day Mexico City lies Teotihuacan, the spectacular city of the gods. It was already an abandoned ruin long before the time of the Aztecs who regarded it as the birth place of the sun. The Spanish conquistadors had been so overwrought by the city's majesty. One of their earliest chroniclers had written,
"There is no known cause why we shoot any longer about of Atlantis. The discovery and conquest of the Indies do plainly declare what Plato had written.
150 years after Columbus had discovered America, such sentiments would inspire one man to come to the city of silence and search for physical proof of the lost legacy of Atlantis, a search that was bound up in his own quest to discover himself.
Though much of his story has been forgotten, Don Carlos Sigüenza was among the most brilliant men of his age. A poet, mathematician, astronomer and engineer, Sigüenza was also one of the first archeologists in history. Born in Mexico City, Sigüenza was a Creole and considered inferior by the country's Spanish rulers.
Sigüenza was a Creole which means he was descended from Spanish parents, er, although we, we know now that perhaps there were Creoles who had part indigenous blood. They were not at the same level as Spaniards. They were not equal, they were inferior.
Overcoming the prejudices of Mexico-Spanish overlords had become Sigüenza's self-appointed task from an early age. He was determined to prove that the ancestors of Mexico's Indians had once forged a culture to rival ancient Rome.
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conquistador: n. 西班牙征服者，征服者
overwrought:adj. 因紧张或兴奋过度激动
chronicler: n. 年代记录者
indigenous: adj. 本地的
Spaniard: n. 西班牙人
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