Archaeologists unlock secret below ancient Mayan pyramid

Find Your Forecast Search for a location

Reuters

News agency

Saturday, November 11, 2017, 2:00 PM - Archaeologists are searching for the secrets of why the ancient Mayans chose the sites for the famed pyramids of Chichen Itza by looking underground.

Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is dotted with natural wells called cenotes and underground rivers. Archaeologists now believe that some of these hydrological features lie below the sacred ground on which the Mayan pyramids were built.

Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said: "We're looking for what seems to be a messoamerican pattern of a relation (between) architecture (and) caves, or architecture (and) artificial cave, tunnel or cenote."

Another member of the team is James Brady from the California State University of Los Angeles who is investigating the tunnels and passageways that lie under the pyramids. Brady said, "the great hope is to connect with the cenote under the Castillo (Pyramid)."

The team hopes to gather enough information to construct a full 3-D model of all of Chichen Itza's Mayan structures along with the geologic and hydrologic features of the ground underlying the ancient site.

WATCH BELOW: Yukon man survives graphic bison attack, hear the story



