Photo: INAH

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) helped Guatemala in the exploration of the submerged Maya city in Lake Atitlán.

The underwater site, which sank mysteriously into the lake hundreds of years ago, includes a complex of temples, plazas, houses and stelae, which had never before been seen by modern scientists.

The joint exploration, which began on Monday, March 14, and lasted through Sunday, April 3, was coordinated by the United Nations’ Scientific and Technical Advisory Council Mission under the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, and directed by the head of the INAH’s Yucatan Peninsula Office of the Subdirectorate of Underwater Archeology (SAS), Helena Barba Meinecke.

Using non-invasive technologies, divers were able to conduct a geo-reference mapping of the site and to develop virtual tours that will be made available to the public on the internet.