The dense jungle of the Yucatan in the south east of Mexico is a miracle of nature, a region in which the small amount of rain that falls quickly drains away into the limestone ground. Yet, overgrown by dense vegetation are the remains of an ancient civilisation.

Sixty five million years ago a catastrophe of global dimensions transformed the appearance of Planet Earth. A meteorite measuring several kilometres crashed just off what is now the Yucatan and created a crater measuring a hundred and eighty kilometres. Today, within the jungle, this same area contains various entrances into an underwater world, .the Cenotes Cave System.

Experienced cave divers and archaeologists have explored the endless labyrinth and more than five hundred kilometres of the ground water flows of the Yucatan have now been mapped. But this represents only a tiny section of the largest flooded cave system on our planet.

These ‘sacred springs’ played an important role in Mayan mythology. This was the dark primeval sea of the afterlife in which the gods lived. Animals also lived on in this afterworld, indeed the entire earth was a living being!

The Mayan monarchs believed that their ancestors lay at rest within the roots of the world tree thus they made sacrifices to the Cenotes.

The Mayan cities now lie abandoned and most of their myths, long forgotten. But the underworld of the Cenotes has survived and continues to wait for new discoveries to be found from within its tantalising depths.