<< Text Pages >> Tahtzibichen Labyrinth - Ancient Temple in Mexico
Submitted by bat400 on Saturday, 13 September 2008 Page Views: 17903
Multi-periodSite Name: Tahtzibichen LabyrinthCountry: Mexico
NOTE: This site is 32.462 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Merida Nearest Village: Tahtzibichen
Latitude: 20.900000N Longitude: 89.9W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Temple in Yucatan State, Mexico.
A natural cave labyrinth contains stone temples, small pyramids, and a causeway. Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda believes these structures and finds of sculpture, ceramics and human remains indicate the Maya viewed these passageways as an entrance to the mystic underworld, Xibalba.
Portions of the system can only be reached by divers. The site does not appear to be open top the public.
Water systems in Mexico's Yucatan sink into the porous limestone bedrock to form underground passages. Surface openings that collapse into these passages were a ready water source in ancient and modern times. Their deep pools and blind passages also appear to have inspired Mayan mythology as a place of the dead, accessible to few of the living. Xibalba is described in the Mayan Popul Vuh chronicle, dictated to Spanish priests from either an oral tradition or a translation from now lost Mayan books. De Anda has been studying Mayan uses of caves, sinkhole cenote wells, and underground rivers for many years as part of his El culto al cenote en el centro de Yucatan Project (The Cult of the Cave Well in Central Yucatan). The constructions in nearly inaccessible depths would indicate the caves were a strong inspiration to create a more tangible passage to Xibalba, or perhaps, the mythology and the religious practices were developed together. Most artifacts in the Tahtzibichen caves have been dated to Classical Mayan civilization, ca. 750-850 AD, but some ceramics date to Pre Classical, at about 100 AD.
The location listed if for Merida. The location of this cave system is unknown to us. There are two villages near Merida named Tahtzibichen: one lies on the south eastern edge of Merida, another is approximately 50 miles southeast of Merida.
Note: See linked National Geographic story and another article on the Tahtzibichen cave system in comment.
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