Teotihuacán, a Mesoamerican metropolis founded approximately 100 BC, is an archaeological marvel. The city was developed on an urban grid centered around two perpendicular axes: N-S and E-W, according to surveyors who plotted the entire complex in the 1960s.

This collection of alignments demonstrated knowledge that was far ahead of its time in terms of geography, architecture, and astronomy. One of the most exciting discoveries was made in the early twentieth century when a sheet of mica was uncovered in the Pyramid of the Sun’s top levels.

Thick sheets of mica were also discovered beneath the rock-slab floor of the Mica Temple complex. In the Mica Temple, two 90 square foot sheets were stacked on top of one other, each 30 cm (1 foot) thick.

Mica is a collection of sheet silicate minerals with unique qualities that make it a valuable component of modern technology. Mica sheets are chemically inert thermal and electrical insulators that may be found in everything from electronic components to spacecraft radiation shields.The mica sheets found at Teotihuacán were linked to a quarry in Brazil, which is around 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) distant. Several Olmec sites also employed the same South American mica. Transporting vast sheets of this delicate material was undoubtedly a difficult undertaking, thus the sheets must have played an essential part.

They were not placed under the stone flooring for decorative purposes, as evidenced by the fact that they were placed beneath it.

Is it feasible that Teotihuacán’s builders had access to information that we’ve only had for a few hundred years? If that’s the case, what was the function of the mica sheets? What valuable artifact was hidden beneath the Mica Temple that needed to be protected from electromagnetic radiation?

VIDEO: