Cenote Samula

About this audio guide

This guide to Cenote Samula in Dzitnup, near Valladolid, follows the thread of water and hunger in the ancient Maya world, where a cave cracked open in the limestone became the region's only reliable well. You will hear about the tree whose roots reach down through the rock toward the water below, and about the rain god Chaac, whom Maya communities turned to when the wells themselves ran dry. It touches on how people drew drinking water and fish from wells like this one across centuries of dry ground. Best heard looking up, where the roots still hang toward the pool.