At one point, around the time the influence of Teotihuacan began to spread across the region, the city was seemingly ruled by a man whom, based on the descriptions of him by the Maya, archaeologists have dubbed “Spearthrower Owl”.
There was clearly no threat to its existence for some time, as no military garrisons or fortifications of any kind could be found around the site. Eventually though, as always seems to be the case, the civilization collapsed and the city fell into ruins.
Archaeological evidence reveals that it was sacked and burned to the ground around the year 550 ACE. As most of the damage was done to buildings housing the ruling class, it’s likely the sacking was induced by the plebiscite.
The Aztecs happened upon it in the 14th Century, claimed a shared ancestry, and took it for their own. They were the ones that gave the temples their commonly used names, including the Pyramid of the Moon. They likely never knew about the tunnels hiding underneath it.
Eventually, after the transformation of the country via colonization, conquest, and globalization, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and now researchers are spending their days uncovering as many secrets from its storied past as possible.