Chrome-era postcard of the ancient city of San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico — view from atop the Templo de Quetzalcóatl, with a massive carved feathered serpent head jutting from the staircase balustrade at right while the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon recede into the distance across the archaeological plain. Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, built beginning around 100 BCE and abandoned around 550 CE, its builders still unknown; the Spanish found it already ancient and named it "the place where men become gods." An American visitor mailed this to friends in El Paso, reporting that the flight to Mexico City had been a turbulent nightmare spent filling airsickness bags, that city driving was terrifying, but the food was wonderful — and that they had not yet succumbed to turista.

• Caption: "Panoramica Zona Arqueologica de San Juan Teotihuacan — Overall view from the Templo de Quetzalcoatl showing the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon"
• Photographer: Mark Turok
• Publisher: AMMEX Asociados, S.A., México, D.F. (Vistacolor)
• Postmark: Mexico City (T. Terrestres), c.1960s
• Status: Posted