The Ring the Asteroid Left

Travel Onion · 2:14

The swimming holes across the north of the Yucatán sit on a curve — and that curve is the buried rim of the Chicxulub crater, left by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The impact shattered the limestone in a ring almost 200km across; ever since, water has moved more easily through those fractures, dissolving caves and collapsing them into the cenotes you can still swim in. There are around 6,000 of them. Underneath the peninsula the caves join up: Sac Actun alone runs more than 380km of flooded passage with over 200 cenote entrances, and divers are still mapping it. To the Maya a cenote was a way into Xibalba, the underworld, and the home of the rain god. Offerings went into the water — jade, gold, pottery, incense. Dredging at Chichén Itzá's Sacred Cenote brought up thousands of objects. Save this one for the trip you actually take. Follow for more places worth the trip.