Cenotes and tunnels: the mysterious roads of the Mayan and Teotihuacan underworld

Mexico is a country rich in culture and archaeological discoveries that are part of the mysteries hidden by these sacred places: the Secretariat of Culture and the National Institute of Anthropology and History confirmed that just below the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan found an underground passage dating back 1,800 years, and today it is one of the most sacred places of the archaeological site.

Thousands of objects were recovered, including four stone sculptures and jade ornaments. It is believed that it was a gate to enter the underworld, since it has a length of 102 meters and 42 centimeters. Jorge Arturo Zavala of INAH mentioned that: “It was built entirely in the core of the tepetate, with mallets, chisels and bars of old technology, sparing no effort or human resources. This is how one of the most sacred places in Teotihuacan was modeled, an elongated duct where the traces of the ancient process of working with tools possibly made of fire-hardened wood can be seen”.

The tunnel has two shots to descend, the main one is 4.5 m2 and the secondary one is 83 cm. It is also said that it was repeatedly sealed. A generation of Teotihuacans came in perhaps for reasons related to political changes and that perhaps it was used to deposit the remains of people linked to the government, although this is still a hypothesis.

There are also finds of tunnels under the pyramid of the moon that of the Sun, confirming that the Teotihuacans reproduced the same pattern of the underground tunnels in the great monuments, where the function must have been the emulation of the underworld.

However, Teotihuacan is not the only archaeological site that hides secrets. Well, a network of 150 altars was also found in the cenotes of the Riviera Maya. For the Mayans the cenotes are the belly of the earth, the entrance to the underworld and the direct passage of the cave deities to the plane of men. Since 2019, INAH in Quintana Roo began working in conjunction with the Urban Cenotes project in Playa del Carmen, where a cenote called The Cave of the Temple of Stalagmite was discovered, because an altar was found inside.

However, INAH archaeologists mentioned that it is common to find altars inside caves and cenotes on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, since these sites were considered sacred by the Maya, because they believed that water divinities such as Chaac and Ek Chuah inhabited, and that is why it is known that the cave was occupied as an altar between 1200 and 1500, years that correspond to the others found.

The cave is composed of dry areas and others have the presence of shallow water, in an area of 800 m², the Mayans entered these places to deposit offerings and ask for the advice of ancestors and help from the deities. A rock outcrop was found 5 meters from the altar, on which a mortar was excavated, also fragments of Late Postclassic ceramics from an obsidian knife and two human molars.

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