Discovery of Mercury Under Teotihuacan Pyramid

In October 2003, heavy rains that struck the pyramid

ruins in the ancient city of Teotihuacan caused a sinkhole

approximately ninety centimeters wide to form at the base of the Temple of

the Feathered Serpent, one of the site's most important

structures.

Archaeologists immediately began investigating this void.

What they discovered was a tunnel extending from the outside of

the temple to

directly beneath its exact center.

It had likely been intentionally sealed by the Teotihuacanos.

In April 2015, after nearly twelve years of

excavations, archaeologist Sergio Gómez

and his team made

a shocking discovery. They found a large pool of liquid mercury

directly under the center of the pyramid.

What makes this discovery so intriguing is that mercury does not occur

naturally in its pure liquid state.

Mercury is obtained from a natural mineral called cinnabar, a

complex process that requires high temperatures.

Mercury is also an extremely toxic element and difficult to extract.

How they processed liquid mercury thousands of years ago without being

affected by its toxic effects remains a mystery.

In today's technology, superconductors like liquid mercury

are used

in revolutionary applications such as free energy production,

advanced medical imaging, and cutting-edge transportation projects.

The presence of such a large amount of mercury under a nearly

two-thousand-year-old pyramid raises the question of whether it might have

served a technological purpose.