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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 15, 2015, 01:59:35 pm

Title: Mexico finds subterranean river under Chichen Itza pyramid
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 15, 2015, 01:59:35 pm

Mexico finds subterranean river under Chichen Itza pyramid
Associated Press  August 13, 2015 7:34 PM


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/SfIEpBg46ENaJtL5w9oQng--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzMztpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/0f204d5a3a7106247f0f6a7067005c38.jpg)
Rene Chavez, right, researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (UNAM), speaks next to Arturo Iglesias, director of the Institute, during a press conference in Mexico City, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. Researchers at the UNAM found that the Kukulcan pyramid in the archaeological site of Chichen Itza is built on a cenote or a water filled sinkhole. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)



MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican experts have discovered that the main pyramid at Mexico's Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza was at least partially built atop a subterranean river.

Experts from Mexico's National Autonomous University say they found a subterranean cavity about 20 meters (yards) deep below the pyramid of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo.

Geophysics expert Rene Chavez said Thursday the underground river chamber is naturally covered by rock.

Such underground rivers often connect the open "cenotes," or sinkhole lakes, that dot Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

The discovery was made using a kind electrical resistance survey, not by excavating. Chavez said one corner of the pyramid rested on the underground chamber, so it was in danger of collapsing.

Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda said the discovery was important.

De Anda, who did not participate in the study, said it may confirm that the Mayas included symbolic maps of their cosmology in their temples and sacred sites. The cenotes that surround the pyramid could represent the four points of the compass. The river at the center might represent the center of the Maya's universe, which they thought of as a tree with roots reaching below ground.

Also Thursday, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said research at another Mayan site, Uxmal, found an usually high number of medicinal plants growing nearing the structure known as the governor's palace.

Uxmal site director Jose Huchim Herrera said the concentration of such plants was so much higher in the sacred area than in surrounding fields, that it indicates the Mayas planted them there intentionally as a sort of medicinal garden. The site has about 150 species used to treat snake bites, stomach infections and fevers.


http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-finds-subterranean-river-under-chichen-itza-pyramid-220950868.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-finds-subterranean-river-under-chichen-itza-pyramid-220950868.html)

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ISTR that the Mayans had a particular holy site at a mountain that had caves with a river, and their pyramids were symbolic representations of that, according to one theory - this discovery is consistent...

Title: Re: Mexico finds subterranean river under Chichen Itza pyramid
Post by: Unorthodox on August 18, 2015, 08:41:31 pm

Yeah, they found an underground complex they believe may have been xiabalba. 

Cenotes were sacred to them, we know that.  That temples were built on them is not surprise.  The underground river, unless they can show there is some kind of path to it, I think is likely coincidence.