The Sacred Well of Chichén Itzá
Next to the great pyramid of Chichén Itzá is a huge natural well, its water far below. The Maya threw treasures into it for the rain god, and sometimes people.
What was reported
The Sacred Cenote is a round sinkhole about 60 metres across with sheer walls dropping to green water, at the end of a causeway from the main plaza of Chichén Itzá. Spanish chroniclers wrote that the Maya threw offerings into it for Chaac, the rain god, especially in times of drought.
Between 1904 and 1910, the American Edward Thompson dredged it and brought up jade, gold, copal incense, and the bones of people who had been sacrificed there.
Explanations offered
The finds confirmed the chroniclers' accounts. In the Yucatán, which has no rivers above ground, cenotes were the only water and were seen as doorways to the underworld. Many of Thompson's finds went abroad; some have since been returned to Mexico.
- When
- Used for centuries; dredged 1904–1910
- Where
- Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico
- Witnesses
- Spanish chroniclers and archaeologists
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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