Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 240, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1913 — Natural Wells in Yucatan. [ARTICLE]

Natural Wells in Yucatan.

Since Yucatan, where the Mayas built their strange cities, Is a coral limestone formation, it would, says a writer In Records of the Past, have been a barren desert but, for its subterranean riven, and thetcenotes, or water caverns, which give access to them. The Mayas noted the courses of the underground streams and built their towns round the cenotes. Many cenotes are now found surrounded by ruins, and give frkpc&tkais of the methods employed by the Mayas to reach their cool waters. In Uxmal a cenote about 40 feet deep ls< inhabited by a peculiar species ot fish. At Bolanchen there Is a cenote having five openings in the rocks at the bottom of the cavern. Ladders made ,by tying tree trunks together lead down a total distance of 1,400 feet, but the perpendicular depth from the surface to the water Is not over*,soo feet