<P> In November 2014 "large quantities" of mercury were discovered in a chamber 60 feet below the 1800 - year - old pyramid known as the "Temple of the Feathered Serpent," "the third largest pyramid of Teotihuacan," Mexico along with "jade statues, jaguar remains, a box filled with carved shells and rubber balls ." </P> <P> The ancient Greeks used cinnabar (mercury sulfide) in ointments; the ancient Egyptians and the Romans used it in cosmetics . In Lamanai, once a major city of the Maya civilization, a pool of mercury was found under a marker in a Mesoamerican ballcourt . By 500 BC mercury was used to make amalgams (Medieval Latin amalgama, "alloy of mercury") with other metals . </P> <P> Alchemists thought of mercury as the First Matter from which all metals were formed . They believed that different metals could be produced by varying the quality and quantity of sulfur contained within the mercury . The purest of these was gold, and mercury was called for in attempts at the transmutation of base (or impure) metals into gold, which was the goal of many alchemists . </P> <P> The mines in Almadén (Spain), Monte Amiata (Italy), and Idrija (now Slovenia) dominated mercury production from the opening of the mine in Almadén 2500 years ago, until new deposits were found at the end of the 19th century . </P>

Mercury is good or bad conductor of heat