12 meters below, the entrance to the tunnel that leads to galleries under the Feathered Serpent Temple, in Teotihuacan, where rests of rulers of the ancient city might have been deposited.

In a visit with the media, the director of Tlalocan Project: Underground Road, the archaeologist Sergio Gomez Chavez, announced the advances of exploration conducted by INAH in the tunnel closed nearly 1,800 years ago by Teotihuacan dwellers.

INAH specialists plan to enter the tunnel in 2 months, to be the first persons to come in after its closure. This excavation -the deepest made at the Prehispanic site- is part of the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of archaeological excavations at Teotihuacan and its opening to public.

Sergio Gomez mentioned that the underground passage runs under Feathered Serpent Temple – the most important building at La Ciudadela complex-, and the entrance is located a few meters away from the temple.

The square place of "La Citadelle" has  enough space for all inhabitants of Tenochtitlan to come together. (wikipedia )

               The Temple of the Feathered Serpent. (wikipedia)

A vertical shaft of almost 5 meters by side is the access to the tunnel: it goes 14 meters deep, and the entrance leads to a nearly 100 meters long corridor that ends in a series of underground galleries excavated in the rock.

The tunnel was discovered in late 2003 by Sergio Gomez and Julie Gazzola, but it has taken several years to plan exploration and raise funds. The staff is integrated by 30 persons and counts on with national and international advisors of the highest scientific level.

Before excavation began, Dr. Victor Manuel Velasco, from UNAM Institute of Geophysics, determined with the help of ground penetrating radar (GPR) the approximate length of the tunnel and the presence of internal chambers.

Laser scanner has also been used to perform three dimensional register. The high resolution devise is property of the INAH National Coordination of Historical Monuments (CNMH).

Only a couple of weeks ago, the entrance of the tunnel was located at the expected place. A small opening was made and the scanner captured the first images, 37 meters into the passage.

"The complete process might take another 2 months of work, we must continue exploration with the same system used until now to avoid loosing important information that will allow us knowing activities conducted there by Teotihuacan people hundreds of years ago and why they decided to close it", mentioned Gomez Chavez.

200 tons of soil and debris have been removed to present. Nearly 60,000 fragments of artifacts have been recovered.

Angel Mora, from the CNMH Technological Support Unit, and engineer Juan Carlos Garcia, scanner operator, mentioned that when introducing the laser only a 37-meter length was registered. Mora declared this indicates that "the beam bumped into something, maybe rocks, a landside, or a change of level".Modificado el ( miércoles, 04 de agosto de 2010 )

"The Descendants" ( Ritual of the Totonacis) (wikipedia )

The Pyramide of the Sun seen from the Pyramide of the Moon. The "Temple of Quetzalcoatl" is located behind. (wikipedia)