A Mexico earthquake last September revealed traces of a third ancient temple at the Teopanzolco pyramid, which archaeologists have now explored and date back to 1150.
After the quake the archaeologists were scanning the pyramid at Cuernavaca in Morelos state, about 43 miles south of Mexico City, for damage when remains of the temple were found inside, the BBC News reported.
The greatest damage happened at the top, where two temples had already been discovered – one dedicated to the Mesoamerican god of the sun and war, Huitzilopochtli, and another to Tláloc, the Aztec rain god.
When the institute used radar to examine the pyramid's structure, they found traces of a third temple.
The temple is believed to have belonged to the Tlahuica culture, one of the Aztec groups living in central Mexico at the time, BBC News said, and also dedicated to Tláloc.
The temple would have measured 20 feet by 13 feet, according to archaeologists, who found an incense burner and ceramic shards.
The 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit central Mexico on Sept. 19, killing 369 people, mostly in the country's capital of Mexico City where 40 buildings were toppled, Agence France-Presse reported. It was a relatively rare tremor to happen away from the country's Pacific Coast, where two tectonic plates collide, Newsweek reported.
"The pyramid suffered considerable rearrangement of the core of its structure," said archaeologist Barbara Koniecza of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, according to AFP. "The floor of both shrines sank and bent, which also put their stability in danger."
The Tlahuica rose at the time of the Spanish conquest. They lived largely in Morelos state and its largest city, Cuauhnahuac, which was renamed Cuernavaca by the Spaniards, according to an Arizona State University website dedicated to the culture,
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