{"id":11866,"date":"2017-04-05T15:24:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T19:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.playadelcarmen.com\/blog\/?p=11866"},"modified":"2018-06-21T12:47:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T16:47:50","slug":"great-mayan-aquifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.playadelcarmen.com\/blog\/great-mayan-aquifier\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Mayan Aquifer Project Discovers Ice Age Remains Near Tulum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last six months, an expert team of archeologists, biologists, underwater photographers, and specialized cave divers have joined together for an ambitious project known as the Great Mayan Aquifer. It’s mission: to explore the extensive network of underground rivers and caves that permeate the subsoil beneath the Riviera Maya and document not only the Ice Age and ancient Mayan artifacts found within, but also to create a framework to protect what may be the world’s largest freshwater aquifer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some of the Riviera Maya’s most stunning attractions have nothing to do with the blues hues of the Caribbean Sea and those inviting white sand beaches.<\/p>\n

In fact, they lie deep below the Earth’s surface and are only partially accessible to the general public via exposed openings in the Earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

Called cenotes, they are enigmatic and still largely unexplored.<\/p>\n

These mesmerizing bodies of water found in and around Playa del Carmen<\/strong><\/a>, which the ancient Maya considered to be portals to the Netherworld, are largely interconnected through a series of underground, flooded cave systems.<\/p>\n

\"Palomitas<\/p>\n

They represent the longest underground rivers in the world and are the only source of fresh water for the entire region.<\/p>\n

Just in the short, 62-mile stretch of land between Cancun and Tulum<\/strong><\/a> lies a network of caves that weaves its way through the subsoil through approximately 826 miles.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, the entire coastline of the Yucatan Peninsula is around 685 miles long.<\/p>\n

What is a Cenote<\/h2>\n
\"Underwater

Photo taken at Sayab Planetarium, Playa del Carmen<\/p><\/div>\n

To understand these mysterious bodies of water it’s first important to know what they are.<\/p>\n

The original word for cenote is dzonot<\/em>, meaning “deep well” in Mayan.<\/p>\n

The Spaniards who conquered the region understood the word to be cenote (pronounced ceh-no-teh).<\/p>\n

These bodies of water were a vital part of both the survival and the cosmovision of the ancient Maya.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, they served as a major source of water for the entire region. In fact, almost all communities are built around or close to cenotes, and the major pyramid at Chichen Itza<\/strong><\/a>, known as Kukulkan, was built directly over one.<\/p>\n

\"Mayan

Photo credit: Great Mayan Aquifer<\/p><\/div>\n

But on the other hand, the cenotes also played a role as one of the major dimensions in their cosmovision, which divided the world into the heavens, the earthly realm, and the Netherworld, or Xibalba<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the Maya, the cenotes served as gateways to this third dimension of reality.<\/p>\n

Today, we now know that they are also the portals to perhaps the world’s largest freshwater aquifer and the only source of its kind in the entire Riviera Maya.<\/p>\n

How Cenotes Are Formed<\/h2>\n

\"cenote-jungle-buggy\"<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, cenotes are basically the exposed parts of a large system of flooded caves that stretch throughout the Yucatan Peninsula all the way from the Caribbean Sea to the Riviera Maya.<\/p>\n

Throughout the centuries, mostly as part of a process of natural erosion. As the limestone bedrock collapses, the Earth surface begins to expose these cave systems, creating a relief known as karst and the phenomenon we know today as cenotes.<\/p>\n

\"The

Photo taken at Sayab Planetarium, Playa del Carmen<\/p><\/div>\n

While almost all are interconnected, some are more independent than others and some form part of larger, more complex cave systems.<\/p>\n

Depending on their stage of development, a number of different types of cenotes<\/strong><\/a> can be found throughout the region.<\/p>\n

\"habanero-tours-51\"<\/p>\n

Here are the four principal types of cenotes you will find in and around the Playa del Carmen region:<\/p>\n