Pope Francis got a brief glimpse of pre-Hispanic culture Sunday, the day before he flies to the southern state of Chiapas to celebrate Mexico's indigenous peoples.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says that before arriving in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec for a Mass, the pope's helicopter flew over the pyramids of Teotihuacan about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital.
Teotihuacan was founded almost 2,500 years ago and the city came to dominate trade, culture and architecture of large swaths of Mexico. It was abandoned when the Aztecs arrived 1,300 years ago.