The Maya and cenotes

Where the word comes from

"Cenote" comes from the Yucatec Maya word ts'onot (also written dzonot), meaning a well or hole in the ground with water. Spanish speakers turned it into cenote, and English borrowed the Spanish word.

Water for whole cities

The northern Yucatán has almost no rivers or lakes. Cenotes were the only reliable year-round water, so many Maya towns, including Chichén Itzá, were built beside them.

Doorways to the underworld

Caves and cenotes were seen as entrances to Xibalba, the underworld of Maya belief. Water in them was linked to rain, fertility and the gods.

Offerings and rituals

Archaeologists have recovered jade, gold, pottery, copal incense, wooden objects and human remains from sacred cenotes, showing they were places of ritual.

Keep reading

• The Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá
• Xibalba, the Maya underworld
• Chaac, the rain god
• Cenote sacrifice: what the evidence shows
• Naia and Hoyo Negro

Cenotes under threat today

National Geographic reports that the cenotes are fed by an aquifer of about 64,000 square miles, the region's only source of drinking water, and that farm runoff, sewage and the Tren Maya rail line have raised concern about protecting it.

Cenotes in daily Maya life

• Drinking and cooking water carried up in clay jars.
• Water for farming and animals in the dry season.
• Meeting places for towns built around them, like Valladolid over Zaci.
• Some families still use well cenotes today in rural Yucatan (reported).

Cenotes and Maya cities

Cities in northern Yucatan, like Chichen Itza, Mayapan and Dzibilchaltun, grew around cenotes. In the Puuc hills, where cenotes are rare, the Maya stored rain in chultunes and aguadas. See our guides on Maya cities built around cenotes and on chultunes.

Gods and myths

• Chaac, the rain god, was believed to live in cenotes and caves.
• Xibalba, the underworld of the Popol Vuh, was entered through caves and water.
• Cenotes were seen as the meeting point of the earth, sky and underworld.

Modern Maya traditions

Some communities still hold Ch'a Chaak rain ceremonies and bless cenotes before opening them to visitors. Many community-run cenotes in Yucatan are owned and managed by local Maya families and ejidos.

How to visit respectfully

• Follow local rules and shower before swimming.
• Don't throw coins or objects in the water.
• Hire local guides and pay community fees.
• Don't take stones, bones or pottery.