Researchers found a tunnel under the Temple of the Snake in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, about 45 kilometres northeast of Mexico City, according to dpa. The tunnel had apparently been sealed off around 1,800 years ago. Researchers of Mexico's National University made the finding with a radar. Closer study revealed a "representation of the underworld," in the words of archeologist Sergio Gomez Chavez, of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Experts found "a route of symbols, whose conclusion appears to lie in the funeral chambers at the end of the tunnel." The structure is 14 metres below the ground, and it runs eastwards. It is 120 metres long. "At the end, there are several chambers which could hold the remains of the rulers of that Mesoamerican civilization. If confirmed, it will be one of the most important archaeological dircoveries of the 21st century on a global scale," Gomez Chavez said late Thursday. Teotihuacan, with its huge pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, its palaces, temples, homes, workshops, markets and avenues, is the largest pre-Hispanic city in Mesoamerica. It reached its zenith in the years 300-600 AD.
