World’s Largest Underwater Caverns Filled With Mayan Mysteries Discovered
The longest underwater cave system around the globe has been discovered, containing numerous priceless relics, according to Mexican experts.
The flooded cave system extends to an astonishing length of 216 miles (347 km), whose maze is an important archaeological discovery potentially leading to the solution to the mysteries surrounding the Mayan civilization
The Great Maya Aquifer (GAM) Project, led by underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, has involved underwater exploration in caves on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico for decades.
Within the region, there are around 358 freshwater flooded cave systems stretching for more 870 miles (1,400km). De Anda explained that their achievement has wide-ranging importance:
It took the researchers 10 months to put their efforts in to prove that two caves systems, the Sac Actun System and the Dos Ojos caves, are in fact part of one continuous and definitely massive cavity in the planet.
Robert Schmittner, the exploration director of GAM, revealed how the team came close several times to ratify the relation between the two gigantic cave systems.
“It was like trying to follow the veins within a body,” said Schmittner. “It was a labyrinth of paths that sometimes came together and sometimes separated. We had to be very careful.”
The impressive caves present an invaluable scientific loot, with divers finding a large amount of Mayan artifacts like ceramics, remains (including those of early humans, giant sloths and tigers) and extinct fauna.
De Anda called the caves a “tunnel of time that transports you to a place 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.”
VIDEO:
Source: GAM
The flooded cave system extends to an astonishing length of 216 miles (347 km), whose maze is an important archaeological discovery potentially leading to the solution to the mysteries surrounding the Mayan civilization
The Great Maya Aquifer (GAM) Project, led by underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, has involved underwater exploration in caves on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico for decades.
Within the region, there are around 358 freshwater flooded cave systems stretching for more 870 miles (1,400km). De Anda explained that their achievement has wide-ranging importance:
Source: GAM
It took the researchers 10 months to put their efforts in to prove that two caves systems, the Sac Actun System and the Dos Ojos caves, are in fact part of one continuous and definitely massive cavity in the planet.
Robert Schmittner, the exploration director of GAM, revealed how the team came close several times to ratify the relation between the two gigantic cave systems.
“It was like trying to follow the veins within a body,” said Schmittner. “It was a labyrinth of paths that sometimes came together and sometimes separated. We had to be very careful.”
Source: GAM
The impressive caves present an invaluable scientific loot, with divers finding a large amount of Mayan artifacts like ceramics, remains (including those of early humans, giant sloths and tigers) and extinct fauna.
De Anda called the caves a “tunnel of time that transports you to a place 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.”
VIDEO:
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