It’s hard to believe that such a place could become more intriguing, but I just stumbled across another 360° video in which archaeologist Guillermo de Anda explains how there’s more belowEl Castillo than meets the eye — a lot more!
That video hardly scratches the surface of what Guillermo de Anda and Gran Acuífero Maya are discovering about underwater caves and their importance to the Maya.
Not only was Chichén Itzá built over a cave, but that cave is connected to Sistema Sac Actun which is now considered to be the largest underwater cave system in the world. In addition, sinkholes called cenotes serve as a network of entrances to the cave system!
The most mind boggling thing of all is that divers are finding both Maya relics and much, much older human artifacts in the the underwater caves. Here’s a link to a video about the discovery.
What I didn’t expect was that a two minute excursion into a cave would turn into a fascinating journey into speleology. One thing just led to another, and that’s what happened.
It all started because the video and story about the cave reminded of my own experiences in Mammoth Cave. It’s in Kentucky, and I grew up in Indy — it wasn’t that far away, so I visited it numerous times over the years.
In case you’ve never been, here’s a link to a quick peek.
Each visit was a bit different, but the one thing that I remember most was that Mammoth Cave was billed as the largest cave on Earth. After many hours of tours, it felt like it, too.
Ha, what I saw hardly scratched the surface, literally and figuratively!
It was a bit mind-bending when they zoomed out to show the true scale of the place. Yet that was nothing compared to what I tripped across next.
It turns out that Mammoth Cave was the largest cave, but it’s not anymore.
That honor belongs to Son Doong Cave in Vietnam. It was “discovered” in 1991, but it wasn’t really explored until 2009. Wow, it’s positively Verne’esque — it even has a jungle!
Here’s a link to a video about how photographer and journalist Martin Edström went on a 360° photo expedition into the cave for National Geographic.
Here’s a 360° video of another ice cave under Pemberton Icefield in British Columbia. Not surprisingly, the lifespan of such wonders in our current climate also comes up in the video.
That was mesmerizing, but there is a Giant Crystal Cave in Mexico made out of gypsum instead of ice that might be even more stunning to see. Unfortunately, you can’t.
Luckily here’s a video that shows a bit of what it looks like as well as explains why you really don’t want to see it in person.
I was bummed that I couldn’t find great footage of Crystal Cave. However, while searching for that, I found this fun 360° video of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand.
Near the end of my unexpected detour into caves, I found this neat 360° video and lesson about ancient cave paintings. It’s about art, creativity and communication. These are all near and dear to my heart, so I couldn’t resist including it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this speleological detour as much as I did. If you want to continue exploring caves on your own, here are some resources to get you started.
