1,000 miles of tunnels, which were once thought to be the gateway to the underworld, remain largely unexplored.
From the surface, Mexico’s cenotes look like an Instagrammer’s paradise. Sun hits the turquoise hued-water that fills these steep, jungle-like caverns.
However, there is a hidden world beneath.
Cenotes are sinkholes that have formed over millions of years from collapsed limestone bedrock.
Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, in the south east of the country, has thousands of them. The Maya believed that they were the gateway to the underworld (Xibalba) and considered them to be sacred sites.
But since the 1980s, an international community of cave divers have been exploring the cenotes.
Once thought to be individual sinkholes, they discovered that the cenotes are actually a complex system of caves and waterways. The divers uncovered over 350 caves and over 1,000 miles of tunnels – including the two longest underwater cave systems on Earth.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Sophie Ellis on Discover Wildlife
Source: Discover Wildlife
