Maya Cave Sites - Entrances To The Underworld

Entrances To The Underworld

Caves are often described as entries into the watery Maya underworld. For Mesoamerican groups, including the Maya, life and death occur at liminal zones between this world and the otherworld. Caves then are both associated with life and death; when something emerges from the underworld, that something lives, and when something descends into the underworld, that something dies. Caves are seen as birthplaces where humans and group ancestors were born (and live) and the Maya of the Yucatán even thought that the sun and moon were born out of the underworld.