Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza

The Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza lies at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza on Mexico's northern Yucatan Peninsula, a roughly circular karst sinkhole about 60 meters across with sheer limestone walls dropping some 27 meters to the water surface, formed by the collapse of porous limestone bedrock into the underground river system below. Between 1904 and 1911 the American consul Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the cenote, recovering gold discs, jade ornaments, carved bone, copal incense, pottery, obsidian blades and human skeletal remains, including individuals showing evidence of blunt-force trauma consistent with ritual sacrifice, confirming its long use by the Maya as a site of offering to Chaac, the rain god. This entity documents the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza specifically as a geological formation, a distinct facet from its treatment as a religious and archaeological site on the Divinity Atlas; this entry covers the cenote's karst origin and dimensions as a sinkhole in the Yucatan's limestone bedrock.