Maya cave sites

Maya cave sites are caves used by and associated with the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Certain beliefs and observances connected with cave sites are also maintained among some contemporary Maya communities. These cave sites are understood to have served religious purposes rather than utilitarian ones. Accordingly, archaeological artifacts found within caves can inform interpretations of religious ritual and cave studies combined with epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnographic studies can further inform Maya religion and society.

Maya cave sites of great interest for the robbers and invaders during the war, so the entrances to some of them were walled up (James Brady as examples leads immured caves of Dos Pilas and Naj Tunich).

The total number of caves in the Puuc region in the Yucatan is estimated in more than 2000, most of which is not open (the most extensive to date inventory has about 300 caves). In compiled in the fight against idolatry Spanish chronicles 16th century mentioned 17 sites Maya caves and cenotes (of which found 9 caves). In the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán author Diego de Landa described Sacred Cenote. Underground Maya archeology was actively developing starting from the 1980s-1990s.Museo Nacional de Antropología leads two projects to study the Maya caves: Caves: Register of Prehispanic Cultures Evidence in Puuc Region with 1997 year and The cult of the cenotes in the center of the Yucatan. In 2008, a Mayan underground complex consisting of eleven temples, the 100-meter stone roads and flooded labyrinth of caves, was found on the Yucatan Peninsula. The most famous caves are the Maya: Balankanche, Loltun Cave, Actun Tunichil Muknal and Jolja'.

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