Sacred Cenote
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Coordinates: 20°41′16″N 88°34′04″W / 20.687708°N 88.567694°W
The Sacred Cenote (Spanish: cenote sagrado, "sacred well"; alternatively known as the "Well of Sacrifice") refers to a noted cenote at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in the northern Yucatán Peninsula. It is located to the north of Chichen Itza's civic precinct, to which it is connected by a 300-metre (980 ft) sacbe, or raised and paved pathway.[1] The Sacred Cenote was used for human sacrifices to the rain god Chaac in periods of drought.[2]
The cenote was originally only thought to have once contained offerings to the god of water, Chaak, but an archaeological discovery in the 20th century of human skeletons led people and scholars to believe that the cenote, particularly the one at Chichén Itzá, was indeed used for human sacrifice.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Adams, Richard E.W. (1991). Prehistoric Mesoamerica (Revised edition ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2304-4. OCLC 22593466.
- Clendinnen, Inga (1987). Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570. Cambridge Latin American studies, no. 61. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33397-0. OCLC 4356013.
- Coe, Michael D. (1999). The Maya. Ancient peoples and places series (6th edition, fully revised and expanded ed.). London and New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28066-5. OCLC 59432778.
- Sharer, Robert J.; with Loa P. Traxler (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th edition (fully revised) ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4816-0. OCLC 28067148.
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