A group of Mexican researchers confirmed the existence of an underground chamber and a tunnel under the Pyramid of the Moon in the Archaeological Zone of Teotihuacán, reported the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
The results of the study of electrical resistivity carried out by INAH experts and a team of specialists from the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico around the building since 2017 confirmed the finding.
That chamber, which possibly had ritual uses, located under the building, has a diameter of 15 meters and is connected to the Plaza de la Luna through a tunnel, said the technical assistant director of the Archaeological Zone of Teotihuacán, Verónica Ortega.
He explained that an exploration of the chamber will help to know if each of the main buildings had a specific contact with a certain region of Mesoamerica, for example, the Temple of the Plumed Serpent, where marine materials were found that show their relationship with the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast.
He announced that in the first days of the month, new studies were carried out to locate the entrance of the tunnel, which is located to the south of the Plaza de la Luna, “but it is likely that there is another entrance to the east side, what is essential to have a complete radiography to know what their accesses are”.
He recalled that the Pyramid of the Moon is the only building of the archaeological site that faces the Calzada de los Muertos directly; In addition, it was a structure that was enlarged seven times and is related to the rituals that were held in the Plaza de la Luna.
Since 2015, Verónica Ortega has been carrying out the Integral Conservation Project of the Plaza de la Luna, which began with a prospecting work with georadar on the surface and subsoil of the plaza, where large pits were found in the tepetate and, in its interior, river markings and green stone stelae that represent a symbolic code and unite the underground part (the underworld) with the celestial plane.
In the central altar of the Plaza de la Luna two canals were identified in the north and south of the stairways, and in 2017 work was done in collaboration with the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, which consisted of a study of electrical resistivity and an electrical tomography in the Pyramid of the Moon with which the chamber and the tunnel were identified.
