They invite you to travel below the Temple of the Feathered Serpent

On October 2, 2003, Sergio Gómez Chávez discovered a tunnel, “a sacred cave,” more than 100 meters long and 15 meters deep under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan, in the State of Mexico. Archaeological exploration has since yielded “350,000 priceless and extraordinary objects, as well as 14 rubber balls, probable evidence of the practice of the ball game at the pre-Hispanic site.”

In addition, there was innovation in the investigation, as Gómez Chávez’s team resorted for the first time to the use of cutting-edge technology, without forgetting that the specialists had to overcome various dangers, such as landslides and the detection of radon gas, of a carcinogenic nature, which was inside the ancient passageway.

Gómez Chávez considers that the Tlalocan project, Path Under the Earth in Teotihuacan, “is a little gift of life”, which has been recognized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), as well as by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which awarded it the Field Discovery Award in 2015. Now he is preparing, together with his team and with the University of Michigan, a virtual and interactive tour so that those interested can delve into the mysteries. of the tunnel.

A few years ago the archaeological exploration work was completed and now the experts are analyzing in the laboratory the thousands of pieces and the invaluable material recovered to unravel and reveal the past of one of the most important pre-Hispanic cities in Mesoamerica. This entire research process, texts from specialists, as well as photographic material, is detailed in the recently published book The Tlalocan project: “Path beneath the earth” in Teotihuacan. Exploration and advances in the studies of various materialscoordinated by Chávez Gómez and Julie Gazzola, edited by the Ministry of Culture and the INAH.

During the presentation of the volume a few days ago in Coyoacán, Sergio Gómez pointed out: “together with Julie Gazzola we have proposed that possibly in the Citadel, in the area that we explored in front of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in a very early period of Teotihuacan, there could have been a ball game court” that would be linked to the tunnel.

The archaeologist detailed: “for a long time it was thought, but there was no evidence that ball was played in Teotihuacan. There were representations in the mural painting, but no structure had been located. We did the excavation in practically everything we found, because most of it was destroyed by the Teotihuacans themselves, which has allowed us to complete the hypothesis about the function of the tunnel, where precisely we found the incredibly preserved rubber balls; we have 14, but also thousands of fragments of the that were broken during this type of practice; or, they broke them and deposited them there along with thousands of objects of fabulous quality.”

Lack of financial resources

Until now, Gómez Chávez added, “we have cataloged around 350 thousand objects of extraordinary manufacture. However, many more do not enter into this accounting; for example, the beads of jade or serpentine necklaces made of other materials that we are registering. Unfortunately, we have been practically without financial resources for two years; in 2025 there was only money to work with for two months and thus nothing can be done. It is regrettable that this great treasure and wealth cannot continue to be investigated.”

Regarding the discovery and the research process, the researcher recalled that “for the first time, technological resources were used during the exploration of the tunnel that had never been used before. We used a robot for the first time, then we built another one that was also very successful, in addition to the laser scanner that had never been used in any exploration; all these tools helped us to make a systematic record and meticulous scientific work.”

Regarding this “great discovery”, Gazzola commented: “this tunnel was found under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in the Citadel complex; it is between 15 and 17 meters deep, it begins in the center of the plaza and ends at the aforementioned enclosure; if the Teotihuacans were at this depth it was to reach the water and that is the reason why many of the organic materials were perfectly preserved, which were not usually found either in Teotihuacan or in general. in Mexico.”

It was a very big challenge, explained the specialist, “other materials that were discarded, the restorers had to intervene in site before lifting them and, above all, changing them from their environment to a hot and dry one, which could be fatal for the organic materials.”

Among the various analyses, Gazzola said, the one carried out with members of the Institute of Physics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico stands out, “with whom we analyzed charcoal samples for dating and it was determined that the tunnel was used at the beginning of our era and was closed around the year 250. Now we need to analyze more samples to have the entire occupational sequence of the passage, which was closed by the Teotihuacans themselves, although the city collapsed in the year 550.”

During the investigation, bones of animals such as jaguars, lynxes, wolves, coyotes and dogs were found, as well as insects and aquatic and migratory birds, as well as wood, ceramic containers, remains of bedrolls, around 20 thousand seeds, amber, shell, rubber balls, obsidian, malachite, jadeite and turquoise, the latter of which was found for the first time in this pre-Hispanic site.

Link with the Mayans

The studies are still in progress, but the specialists announced that the largest percentage of the objects are of local origin and another part comes from the Mayan area, “which indicates to us that from an early period Teotihuacan had economic and political-commercial ties with places in the Mexican southeast, specifically with the Pacific coast of Guatemala.”

In the publication, Gómez Chávez stated that since the exploration work began, in front of the terraced platform to locate the access to the tunnel, “more than 20 thousand ceramic fragments belonging to Tláloc jars were recovered, which were located in the access shaft, and everything indicated that the process would conclude with the discovery of hundreds or thousands of pots with the effigy of Tláloc. Numerous waste and shell objects were also deposited.”

Currently, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent requires conservation and restoration work, because time passes relentlessly on the structure, which reveals some detached elements.