Underneath Chichen Itzas pyramid

Underneath Chichen Itza’s pyramid

Scientists have used advanced scanning technology to reveal the shape of pyramids from previous eras within the Mayan temple.




By JOSEPH HALL News reporter
Sun., Jan. 22, 2017


Built around AD 1,000, the magnificent El Castillo pyramid at the Chichen Itza ruins in Mexico is a New World wonder.

Even wonder what’s beneath it? Scientists have used advanced scanning technology to reveal the shape of two pyramids from previous eras, sitting like Russian Matryoshka dolls within the Mayan temple on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The discovery

It’s long been known that the mammoth structure — also known as the Temple of Kukulkan — encased a second, 20-metre-tall pyramid within. Archeologists have tunnelled into El Castillo’s exterior shell to examine the inner structure.

And back in the 1940s, those tunnels, which were once open to the public, went deep enough to actually reveal the third pyramid, says anthropologist Geoffrey Braswell of University of California, San Diego. But those deeper tunnels were later backfilled for fear of structural collapse.

More:
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/01/22/underneath-chichen-itzas-pyramid.html