The Daily Matter | Hong Kong robot reveals mysterious yellow orbs at ancient Mexican temple
Local dentist who supplied tools for space missions uses his expertise to help shed light on one of Mexico's most enduring mysteries
Under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Mexico lay a tunnel not seen by people in more than 1,800 years.
Damp, dark, filled with debris, and deliberately sealed by its creators, the passageway was thought to house the remains of the rulers of the ancient city of Teotihuacan. A robot that recently explored the tunnel found three secret chambers that may shed light on the millennia-old practices of the city, which the Aztecs called the place where gods are born.
Sergio Gomez Chavez is an archaeologist who has been working on the preservation of this city for 33 years. The tanned 52-year-old is the director of the Tlalocan Project, and a researcher for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.
"The tunnel represents the Underworld. The offerings found correspond with this idea that Meso-America had of an Underworld. Now we are identifying human remains."
The robot was one of two involved in the project put together by a team that included Hong Kong dentist and science enthusiast Dr Ng Tze-chuen.
Ng has previously helped design robots used to explore a secret chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza, as well as tools to gather soil and rock samples on missions to Mars and the moon.
Ng was in Mexico for the robot's foray into the unknown. "It's exactly like the Pyramid of the Sun, but that's all looted already," he said, referring to the largest pyramid in Teotihuacan. "This is in pristine condition."