What is inside the Pyramid of the Sun?

A tunnel about 103 m long, found in 1971, runs under the Pyramid of the Sun to a chamber with four lobes beneath its centre. The INAH guide says that space is older than the pyramid. You cannot enter it. The tunnel is on none of the 7 trails in the INAH guide. The 248 steps above it have been closed since 2020.

Two later digs added a cache under the centre in 2011 and a figure of Huehueteotl at the summit in 2013. The place page covers the height, the gate and the climbing ban.

What is the tunnel under the Pyramid of the Sun?

INAH gives the tunnel as 103 m long, ending in a four-lobed chamber under the centre of the pyramid. The passage is aligned with the structure above it.

The tunnel was found by accident in 1971. A 2024 Infobae report, citing INAH, names the team of Jorge R. Acosta as its first explorers. Doris Heyden published the first descriptions in 1975 and 1981 and read the cave as a place of origin. Looters in antiquity left the objects inside broken and scattered.

Was the cave under the Pyramid of the Sun natural or dug?

Two answers are in print. The INAH guide calls it a natural cave shaped like a clover and modified by the Teotihuacanos. The Sun Pyramid Project, in a paper of 2013 in Ancient Mesoamerica, argues that the space was built by hand for ritual use.

The same paper, from excavations of 2008 to 2011, dates the tunnel to 140 to 240 CE and the pyramid to 170 to 310 CE. The project defines three building stages. The history page has the timeline.

What was found inside the Pyramid of the Sun?

Three finds are published: the 2011 cache, the 2013 pit at the summit and the burials of 16 children. The 2011 dig under the centre found shards of clay pots, pieces of obsidian, animal bones, three greenstone figurines and a greenstone mask.

In 2013 a covered pit on the summit platform held two pillars and a figure of Huehueteotl, the Old Fire God. The INAH guide records the remains of 16 ritually sacrificed children at the corners and levels of the structure.

Can you go inside the Pyramid of the Sun?

No: the INAH guide lists 7 trails, and the tunnel is on none of them. By 3 November 2026 we found no announcement of a public opening. Climbing is banned too. The 248 steps have been closed since 2020, and on 22 May 2026 INAH kept the ban for the 2026 World Cup.

You can climb the first platform of the Pyramid of the Moon, under the rule INAH set on 19 May 2025. The climbing page has the dated rules for both pyramids.

From the gate: Gate 2, Puerta 2 on INAH’s map, 530 m and 7 minutes to the foot of the Pyramid of the Sun, measured on the map. You cross the Avenue of the Dead, the Calzada de los Muertos, then the plaza in front of you, and stand at the west stairway.

Your MX$210 ticket, for international visitors, covers all three site museums. The Museum of Teotihuacan Culture at Gate 5 is 530 m and 7 minutes from where you stand.

The other tunnel, under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, is also 103 m long. Found in 2003, it held more than 120,000 objects. You cannot enter that one either.