Cenote Zaci

Cenote Zaci lies in the center of the town of Valladolid on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a semi-open karst sinkhole roughly 45 meters across formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock into a flooded cavity below. Its walls carry stalactites built up over centuries from mineral-laden water, and its floor lies some 25 to 30 meters beneath the surface in its shallower sections, dropping further elsewhere. Unlike most Yucatan cenotes, which sit within surrounding jungle, Zaci is unusually urban, standing within the town that itself grew up on the site of the Mayan settlement of the same name, meaning White Hawk, for which the cenote once served as the primary water source. This entity documents Cenote Zaci specifically as a geological formation, a karst sinkhole unusually located in the heart of Valladolid town that once supplied the settlement's water.