What’s up with all these sealed tomb chambers?

First it’s King Tut’s tomb that may be hiding the burial chamber of another Egyptian pharaoh, and now archaeologists may have found something similar beneath the ruins of the Great Temple in the former Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán:

Archaeologists in Mexico have found a passageway and two sealed chambers beneath one of the largest temples of the ancient Aztec capital, raising hopes that excavations will uncover a ruler’s tomb beneath the city.

The tunnel, only 18in wide and 5ft high, leads 27ft directly into a circular ceremonial platform at the Great Temple or Templo Mayor complex of Tenochtitlán, the ruined Aztec capital that overlaps with modern Mexico City. At the end of the tunnel the archaeologists found two sealed doors.

According to the Spaniards who wrote of the conquest of Mexico, the Aztecs burned their kings’ remains on the circular structure – suggesting to lead archaeologist Leonardo López Luján that the sealed portals may lead to tombs.

López Luján thinks that if there are royal burial chambers on the site, they could, given when the site was built, belong to the second Aztec emperor (and the fifth ruler of Tenochtitlán, a lineage that predates the city’s independence and the founding of the empire), Moctezuma I (d. ~1469), and/or his successors Axáyacatl (d. 1481) and Tízoc (d. 1486), which would be a pretty significant find. Although really any discovery of a royal Aztec tomb would be a big deal, since none have ever been found. In fact, they may simply not exist; the Aztecs cremated their dead, and it’s entirely unknown what they did with the ashes of dead rulers. But there are signs at the Templo Mayor site that funerary (and sacrificial) rites were carried out there, and there are images of dead rulers on the walls, so if anyplace is going to hold a royal Aztec tomb, this is probably it.

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