A tiny robot has made a momentous archaeological discovery deep under the famous Temple of Quetzalcoatl, near the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, it was announced on Monday.
Experts expected to find just one ancient chamber at the end of a stretch of 2,000-year-old unexplored tunnel at the Teotihuacan site. Instead, the remote-controlled vehicle has beamed back images of three mysterious caverns.
The three-foot-long investigator, named Tlaloc II-TC after the Aztec god of rain, was first lowered into the depths of the pyramid to check it was safe for human entry.
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Explorer: This robot may have made a momentous discovery in a 2,000-year-old tunnel in Mexico
The was the first image transmitted by the robot deep under the ancient temple
Famous: The social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site
The robot has spent months exploring the tunnels under the celebrated temple, also known as the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, which lies about 37 miles north of Mexico City.
Tlaloc II is equipped with a video cameras and a mechanical arm to clear obstacles out of its way as it maneuvers through the tight passageway.
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Then on Monday, the robot relayed back video images to researchers of what appears to be three ancient rooms located under the Mesoamerican city's pyramid.
This discovery could be highly important. In 2010 experts said a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site.
The remote control vehicle is equipped with a video cameras and a mechanical arm to clear obstacles out of its way as it maneuvers through the tight passageway
Tourists look on at the archaeological area of the Quetzalcoatl Temple about 37 miles north of Mexico City
The temple is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun.
The complex of pyramids, plazas, temples and avenues was once the center of a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants and may have been the largest and most influential city in pre-Hispanic North America at the time.
But nearly 2,500 years after the city was founded - and about 2,100 years after the Teotihuacan culture began to flourish there - very little is known about the identity of its rulers.
No depiction of a ruler, or the tomb of a monarch, has ever been found, setting the metropolis apart from other pre-Hispanic cultures that deified their rulers.
Vertical excavations begun in 2009 to reach the mouth of the tunnel suggest it was a ruler's tomb, archaeologist Sergio Gomez said in 2010.
Archaeologist Sergio Gomez from the National Institute of Anthropology and History explains the developments to the media
The robot is seen near the entrance of a tunnel in the archaeological area. After months of exploration it might have made a momentous discovery
Rich offerings were tossed into the tunnel at the moment it was closed up, including almost 50,000 objects of jade, stone, shell and pottery, including ceramic beakers of a kind never found before at the site.
The city was abandoned by the time the Aztecs arrived in the area in the 1300s and gave it the name 'Teotihuacan,' which means 'the place where men become gods.'
'I think the tunnel was the central element, the main element around which the rest of the ceremonial center was built,' Gomez said. 'This was the most sacred place.'
'There is a high possibility that in this place, in the central chamber, we can find the remains of those who ruled Teotihuacan,' he added.