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Question for May 2025

Did the temple-pyramids have secret passageways?? Asked by Dulwich College Junior School. Chosen and answered by Professor Davíd Carrasco

The temple-pyramids of Mesoamerica did have secret ‘passageways’ that were known to the priests and rulers only. For instance, in the Sun Temple in Teotihuacan, there was a long passageway underground that led back to a chamber under the center of the pyramid where ritual offerings were deposited. There is a nearly 100 yard tunnel that is 40 feet below the surface in the Ciudadela in Teotihuacan that goes straight back to just below the center of the Feathered Serpent pyramid.

Just as important for you students to learn is that in many of these pyramids there was another type of ‘passageway’ to the realm of the gods. These were offering boxes just a few feet below the surface in which were deposited special offerings as a way of communicating with the gods a) the gratitude of the people for good harvests and b) asking for rain and abundance in the future. These offering boxes had items like flutes, vases filled with precious stones or ashes of nobles, jaguar, eagle, alligator remains, sometimes gold, precious necklaces, statues of gods and many shells from the seas.

Picture sources:-
• Pic 1: image, from La Razón, downloaded from https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/uncovering-ancient-pyramid-science-teotihuacan-where-men-become-gods-007896
• Pic 2: photo by Ana Laura Landa/Mexicolore.

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Professor Davíd Carrasco

Professor Davíd Carrasco

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