Cenotes: Sacred sinkholes of the Maya
Our
guide at Uxmal threw so much
information at us so quickly that I'm still digesting his words nearly
a year later. At one point, he stopped beside a hole in the
ground and mentioned that the ancient Mayans got their drinking water
from cenotes. Then we barreled on to see the next ruined
building, leaving me lagging to snap a quick photo.
The Yucatan is, in essence, one big slab
of limestone underlain by an extensive cave system. If you peer 
carefully at a map, you'll
see that the peninsula seems to be devoid of creeks and rivers because
all of the rainwater seeps quickly down into the caves beneath the
surface. Over time, cave roofs collapse and form sinkholes, just
like in my familiar stomping grounds, but in the Yucatan there is so
much groundwater that these holes are full of water --- cenotes.
The Yucatan is
surrounded by ocean on three sides, and that saltwater seeps into the
peninsula's cave system, saturating the lower levels of the
groundwater. Luckily for the ancient Mayans, though,
rainwater is lighter than ocean water, so fresh water floats near
the surface and provides a source of drinking water in an otherwise
waterless area. Cities --- notably Chitchen Itza --- were located
near large cenotes, and "cenote" is merely a Spanish version of the
Yucatec Mayan word for "well."
The Mayans considered
cenotes sacred not only because they were sources of water, but also
because each cenote was believed to be an entrance to the underworld. Sacrificial pottery,
animals, and even humans were tossed into the watery depths as
offerings, and skeletons have been found at the bottom of many cenotes
in the Yucatan.
As if the tantilizing geology
and human history of cenotes weren't enough, a circle of these
sinkholes on the northern coast of the Yucatan peninsula has an even
more star-studded past. The regularity of the circular shape
tipped scientists to study the area in more depth, which led them to
discover that the cenotes trace the outline of a meteor crater 110
miles in diameter. The Chicxulub crater was dated to 65 million
years ago --- the exact moment when dinosaurs became extinct.
Although scientists aren't sure whether a meteor was the sole cause of
dinosaur extinction, they agree that the Chicxulub meteor is at least a
partial cause.
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