Researchers Open Secret Cave Under Mexican Pyramid

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A general view shows the Pyramid of the Sun at the
Teotihuacan archaeological site in the outskirts of
Mexico City February 2, 2008.

REUTERS/
Henry Romero/
Files







                              Researchers open secret cave under Mexican pyramid





By Miguel Angel Gutierrez
Thu Jul 3, 2008
 
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.
 
The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico.

But little is known about the civilization that built the immense city, with its ceremonial architecture and geometric temples, and then torched and abandoned it around 700 AD.

Archeologists are now revisiting a cave system that is buried 20 feet beneath the towering Pyramid of the Sun and extends into a tunnel stretching for some 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet.

They say new excavations begun this month could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs who believed it was a divine site.

"We think it had a ritual purpose. Offerings were placed at the very end of the tunnel as part of the pyramid's construction process," Mexican archeologist Alejandro Sarabia told Reuters.

"We want to find out why the Teotihuacan people sealed it and when," he said.

Sarabia said the tunnel was first discovered in the early 1970s but it was closed soon afterward, and most of the information about it was lost when the archeologist who found it died.

Teotihuacan is Mexico's oldest major archeological site and during its heyday in 500 AD, the city was home to some 200,000 people, rivaling the size of ancient Rome at that time, according to archeologists.

Today, it is surrounded by encroaching slums spilling over from the outskirts of Mexico City, but swarms of tourists still visit the giant 212-foot (65-meter) sun pyramid each year to celebrate the spring equinox festival marking the sun's return to the northern hemisphere.

(Writing by Mica Rosenberg;
Editing by Eric Beech)

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Entrance to the cave






Directly under the pyramid is the cave system that is believed
to have determined its location.

A man-made entrance was discovered in 1971 at the perimeter
of the pyramid, with steep stone steps cut into the walls of a
shaft 23 feet (7m) deep.

From the bottom, a tunnel leads to the natural caves, extended
to form four rooms.

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The Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, echoing the shape of the mountains surrounding the valley, served as focal points for Teotihuacan's urban layout.

Beneath the pyramids are earlier structures; perhaps even tombs of Teotihuacan rulers are to be
found within their stone walls.

When the Pyramid of the Sun was completed circa 200 A.D., it was some 63 meters tall and 215
meters square. One of the largest structures ever built in the ancient Americas, its aspect today
is the result of reconstruction and consolidation carried out in the early part of the twentieth century.

Excavations in 1971 directly under the Pyramid of the Sun revealed a tunnel-like cave, ending in a cloverleaf-shaped set of chambers, apparently the scene of numerous ancient fire and water rituals.

 This cave may have been a "place of emergence"—the "womb" from which the first humans came
into the world in central Mexican thought.

Caves are a key part of symbolic imagery associated with creation myths and the underworld throughout Mesoamerican history. The location and orientation of this cave may have been the
impetus for the Pyramid of the Sun's alignment and construction.

The Pyramid of the Moon, at the northern end of the Street of the Dead, was probably completed around 250 A.D. Recent excavations near the base of the pyramid staircase have uncovered the tomb of a male skeleton with numerous grave goods of obsidian and greenstone, as well as sacrificial animals.

One of the most significant tombs yet discovered at Teotihuacan, it might indicate that even more important tombs lie buried at the heart of the pyramid.