Archaeologists in Mexico Discover Treasure of Mayan Civilization and Giant Sloth Fossils in a Vast Underwater Cave

After ten months of intensive exploration, Mexican scientists have discovered the largest flooded cave system – a true underwater wonderland. Spanning 216 miles (347 km) of astonishing underground caverns, this vast submerged maze is not only a breathtaking wonder, but one that may reveal forgotten mysteries of the ancient Maya civilization. It is also an important archaeological find with potential.

“This huge cave is one of the world’s greatest underwater archaeological sites,” said Guillermo de Anda, an underwater archaeologist at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

“There are over 100 of his archaeological finds, including evidence of the first settlers of America, including extinct fauna and, of course, the Maya culture.” He leads a research initiative called the Layers Project (GAM). He has explored underwater caves in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The area contains 358 amazing caves representing approximately 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) of flooded freshwater tunnels hidden beneath the surface.

Last week a new leader emerged in this vast network. Known as the Sak Actun system, this massive passageway was so large that it was thought to be two separate cave systems.

Another star system called Dos Ojos (“Two Eyes”), 93 kilometers (57.8 miles) long, previously thought to be separate from Sac Actun, was 10 months old. A thorough underwater survey of the caverns proved that the two were in fact one giant star system adjacent to each other.

“We got really close on several occasions. GAM Exploration Director Robert Schmittner told Mexico’s El Pais newspaper, “On several occasions, we were 1 from the distance connecting the two main cave systems. I’ve reached within meters,” he said.

“It was like trying to follow the veins of my body. It was a maze of paths that sometimes merged and sometimes diverged. Sac Actun now succeeds Dos Ojos (and its predecessor), meaning that Sac Actun is currently the longest known underwater cavern at 347 kilometers long in the world – also in Quintana Roo. It surpassed its predecessor, the Ochs-Berha system, which spans 270 kilometers at

. But the search isn’t over yet: Sak Aktun is expected to be even bigger, and the researchers say that further dives Assuming that the cave can be shown to be in fact connected, it is possible that it is connected to three other underwater cave systems.

These dives do more than just find out how deep the fish holes are.

In this unprecedented cave system, a myriad of preserved Mayan artifacts and human remains await discovery and analysis, as captured in the researchers’ videos and photographs.

“We documented more than 100 archaeological elements, including remains of extinct fauna, early humans, Mayan archaeology, pottery, Mayan tombs,” De Anda told Mexican media.

“It’s a tunnel of time that transports you to a place 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.”