From the long forgotten Mayan language, the word "cenote" came to the modern language, which is translated as "well". But in the life of the Indians of Central and South America, this concept played a very important role. Cenotes were considered not only wells storing precious drinking water, but also the gateway to the kingdom of the dead.
Cenote sacrifices
Actually, cenotes are not wells in our opinion. There are no wooden log cabins, stone or concrete rings, there is no gate with a chain and a bucket or "crane". Cenote is a deep sinkhole into a system of limestone caves, at the bottom of which water stands as a motionless mirror. The Maya were so sensitive to these failures that they sacrificed (thrown into the water) jewelry, slaves and the most beautiful virgins from the enemy tribe. Another thing is that drinking water, where in the mass slaves, or even virgins, were drowning, was somehow unhygienic. However, the Maya, apparently, did not think about it. Maybe that's why they died out as a result.
Of course, rumors about the innumerable treasures that the Indians once sent to the bottom of limestone gaps haunt numerous gold hunters. They buy scuba equipment and dive, dive, dive for days, years on end in search of jewelry. The Yucatan Peninsula is completely riddled with limestone caves, and therefore there is no end to the work of divers.
Second in the world
Nobody knows whether any of the divers were lucky in their search for gold or not, but it is known for sure that they managed to make many other, no less interesting discoveries. For example, quite recently a group of divers discovered the second longest cave in the world. And among the underwater caves, it ranks first.
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The first place in length in general was (and still is) the Mammoth Cave, located in the United States. Its total length is over 587 kilometers. And the Sak-Aktun cave system studied by divers, located near the Mexican city of Tulum, has now rightfully taken the second place. Its length was originally estimated at 263 kilometers, but on January 10, 2018, thanks to divers, it turned out that, with the help of flooded passages, this cave connects with the neighboring one called Dos Ojos, which has a length of 83 kilometers. And according to the rules of speleology, the name of a large cave (if it suddenly turns out that it is connected to a smaller cave) is transferred to the entire system, therefore Sak-Aktun now has a length of 346 kilometers.
Having made this quite serious discovery for speleology, the divers got so carried away that they forgot about gold and are now looking for a connection between Sak-Aktun and three neighboring underground systems, which are still considered isolated.
Alexander SOROKIN