Mexico City's Aztec Treasures Remain Buried for Lack of Funds
After Hernan Cortes conquered what is now Mexico City in 1521, Spanish invaders set about burying the Aztec culture they had vanquished. Roads, skyscrapers and a shortage of funds are finishing the job.
A 13-foot (4-meter) carved stone, which archaeologists say may cover the tomb of an Aztec emperor, was unearthed by chance in October. It hints at the treasures that are interred beneath Latin America's most populous urban area -- and likely to remain that way, unseen by historians or tourists.
``To know what lies below, we would have to move everything above, and we can't do that,'' said Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, who directs excavation at the Templo Mayor, Mexico City's main Aztec ruin. ``I wish we had billions of pesos.''
The discovery of the monolith depicting the blood-drinking Aztec god Tlaltecuhtli is the most important since the 1970s, said David Carrasco, a professor of religion and anthropology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The find hasn't attracted the domestic or international attention it merits, he said.
``There has been this major discovery right downtown in Mexico City and you hardly hear about it,'' said Carrasco, the author of ``City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization.''
Tourists often travel 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Mexico City to see the pyramids of another ancient people, the Teotihuacan. Those who walk through the capital's colonial center are mostly unaware of the wealth of Aztec remains that lie beneath, said Alvaro Barrera, head of the federal Urban Archaeology Program.
`This is an area with great potential to attract tourists,'' Barrera said. ``It's just a question of spending more money.''
For more on the "invisible" Aztec capitol, see article at Bloomberg's. Pat Harrington.
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