NEW YORK, BRONX (ORDO News) — For a long time, in the city of Atlixco in central Mexico, there were rumors of a lost temple that was built centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 16th century. This temple, known as teocalli, was considered only a legend, but it has now been revealed that it actually existed.
According to local residents, the temple was originally located on the top of the San Miguel hill, where today there is a Catholic chapel dedicated to the Archangel Michael. However, there was no archaeological evidence of the existence of this temple – until research was carried out.
The first hints of the ancient temple’s existence came when a team of archaeologists , collaborating with the Mexican Ministry of Culture through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), began updating the chapel’s lighting and strengthening the paths leading to the top of the hill.
A team of researchers, including Miguel Medina Jaena, Carlos Zedillo Ortego and Elvia Cristina Sanchez de la Barquera, discovered artifacts that are more than a thousand years old. The finds included stone tools, jewelry and pottery made by the Mesoamerican Nahuas, who inhabited the region long before Europeans arrived.
The team continued to explore in and around the chapel’s atrium and discovered remains of stone walls and floors that belonged to an ancient temple that predates the modern chapel. The remains of the temple were buried 90 centimeters below the foundation of the existing chapel.
This confirms that “the teocalli did exist on the top of the San Miguel hill and that it had at least two phases of construction,” INAH states.
It is currently unclear to which deity this temple was dedicated. Among the suggestions are the deities Quetzalcoatl (the creator of humanity), Tlaloc (the giver of rain) and Macuilxochitl (the patron of games, dances and festivals). However, more research is needed to accurately determine its purpose and the deity it served.
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News agencies contributed to this report, edited and published by ORDO News editors.
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