Mexico City's Aztec Sacred Site Mapped Without Excavation

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has completed a precision topographical survey of the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan, buried beneath Mexico City's historic center. Instead of excavating, researchers studied millimeter-scale ground variations, street slopes, and structural cracks to reconstruct the layout of pre-Hispanic buildings destroyed after the 16th-century Spanish conquest. The project, part of the Urban Archaeology Program, used precision surveying instruments. Raúl Barrera Rodríguez, program director, stated that documenting these fractures and ground level variations makes it possible to propose the arrangement of buildings that once formed the sacred precinct. Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Mexico's Secretary of Culture, called the survey an unprecedented undertaking that will help preserve the city's archaeological heritage. The collected data will now be used to protect remains during future construction and infrastructure work in the historic center.