A team of divers has discovered what’s believed to be the longest underwater cave in the world, just three miles from the white sand beaches of the Mexican resort of Tulum.
The findings confirm that the vast 164-mile-long Sac Actun system is connected to the 52-mile-long Dos Ojos system, bringing the total length of the caves to a winding 216 miles. The warren of caves drops to a depth of more than 332 feet, making it deeper in places than London’s Big Ben is tall.
Divers have long known that Yucatan’s underground caves and rivers are frequently connected, but finding this connection was a task that involved years of searching through labyrinthine passageways.
More exciting than the otherworldly underwater photographs coming out of the caves is the possibility of deciphering the secrets of the Maya civilization, which ruled this region before the 16th-century Spanish conquests of Central and South American. Such “cenotes” were often holy sites in Mayan culture, thought to be portals to the gods. Divers have unearthed religious artifacts and eerily perfect human skeletons in many of them, leading researchers at the Gran Acuifero Maya “a project dedicated to the study and preservation of these caves” to believe they were used for sacrifices.
“It allows us to appreciate much more clearly how the rituals, the pilgrimage sites and ultimately the great pre-Hispanic settlements that we know emerged,” underwater archaeologist and project director Guillermo de Anda told Reuters.
The combined cave will be known as the Sac Actun system, taking on the name of the longer section. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky remains the world’s longest cave of any kind, with more than 400 miles of passages explored.
Tulum, on the Yucatan peninsula, has gained popularity for its pristine beaches, eye-popping coral reefs, high-end Pilates retreats and an impressive culinary scene. It’s 40 miles down the coast from the spring break destination of Playa del Carmen.
Sac Actun and Dos Ojos were already prime scuba diving destinations. The recent revelation certainly means the combined system deserves a designation as one of the most extreme scuba dives in the world. It’s a sliver of good news for the broader Quintana Roo region, which this past summer was included in a U.S. State Department advisory warning Americans about travel to Mexico in light of rising homicide rates.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
