Free Republic

A long-sealed tunnel has been found under the ruins of this ancient city, and chambers that seem to branch off it may hold the tombs of some of the city's early rulers, archaeologists said Tuesday. Experts say the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of exploration at the site, best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun.

Muons May Unlock Secrets of Teotihuacan If tombs are discovered in the Pyramid of the Sun, they could shed light on the governing style in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Does the Pyramid of the Sun harbor any tombs? What might such tombs reveal about the society that two millennia ago built one of Mesoamerica's largest pyramids? In an experiment à la Luis Alvarez, who in the late 1960s concluded that there are no tombs in Egypt's Chephren pyramid, a collaboration of physicists and archaeologists hopes to glean answers to these questions by monitoring the passage of muons through...

Scientists are using cosmic ray detectors to uncover the secrets of the earliest large metropolis of the Americas. Archaeologists and nuclear physicists are working together to measure the passage of muons, subatomic particles from deep space, through the 2,000-year-old Pyramid of the Sun to discover whether it was a mausoleum or a ceremonial monument. They believe the experiment will lead them to burial chambers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference was told. Many experts believe that the pyramid, the third largest in the world, holds the mysteries of the pre-Aztec Teotihuacan civilisation. Arturo Menchaca-Rocha, the director of...