Accessible to the public only by licensed guides conducting day-trips to multi-day stays, Actun Tunichil Muknal is only one of three caves around the edge of a small valley. Actun Tunichil Muknal is on the northwest, Actun Uayazba Kab is high on the southwest, and the small Actun Nak Beh lies on the southeast edge. Within the valley itself Roaring Creek flows to the north past Cahal Uitz Na, a Maya centre reclaimed by the jungle. The map to the right, while not to scale is a fair representation of the area and shows the small tributary that exits from the east end of Actun Tunichil Muknal and empties into Roaring Creek. Not shown are a number of seasonal creeks or paths between sites. Access to the field camp known as the "Xibalba Hilton" and first stop for all visitors, is via a 3 kilometre hike that comes in from the northeast and hugs the banks & also crosses through Roaring Creek. There is no vehicular access to the sites.
Most all of the information presented here is based on the research of Dr. Jaime Awe (pronounced "HI-may AH-way"), director of the Belize Valley Archaeology Reconnaissance Project (BVAR), and the Western Belize Regional Cave Project (WBRCP), two organizations conducting field research in the western Cayo District that also offer programs where you can join in the fun of digging in the dirt. Dr. Awe, a dual Belizean/Canadian citizen, has served the Government of Belize as the Commissioner of Archaeology & Chief Archaeologist, has taught at universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and currently works in the University of New Hampshire's Department of Anthropology as an Assistant Professor. In the meantime he has squeezed in over 20 years of field research.
The interior of caves tend to remain at a constant temperature of about 15° C, although caves with running water such as this one, are generally cooler. The water that runs through caves is much colder than it is in rivers, and can maintain this cooler temperature for some distance after exiting a cave. These points need to be kept in mind if you wish to enter this cave.
Discovered in 1989 and open to the general public since 1998, this cave is a full five kilometres deep. You enter its hourglass-shaped mouth for a 10 metre swim in water at most 5 metres deep, to land on a rock shelf. The next 600+ metres, a journey of well over a half hour filled with many sharp & slippery edges, water depth alternates from just covering your toes to portions where only the tallest won't need to swim. Along the way you pass many calcite formations, a few which have undergone minor sculpting, purpose unknown, by the Maya. After this distance, you ascend 2 or 3 metres to a shelf above the river. From this point forward you walk barefoot; this is hallowed ground.
As you go forward you encounter increasing amounts of pottery of all sizes, their condition from near intact to completely shattered. Over 1400 artifacts - pottery, tools, and ceremonial items dating from 1 to 1000 AD - including over 200 vessels, have been catalogued within the cave. While over half of all the items appear in plain sight in small pools, they are also tucked away between stalagmites, on small, high shelves or other unusual places. There is no artwork as is found in Actun Uayazba Kab.
The most common artifact in the cave - about 400 ceramic jars traditionally used to hold water - has lead to the hypothesis that this cave was most used for ceremonies that pertained to water, rituals to the Rain God, Chac. These ceremonies would be both seasonal renewal and special calendrical celebrations, as well as pleas for help. It is believed the cave saw increased use during the Terminal Classic (800-1000 AD), a period during which a drought occurred in the area.
The deeper in the cave you go, the more recent the activities of the Maya were. Use of the cave by Maya of the Late Preclassic (1 to 250 AD), tended to stay near the mouth of the cave, whereas later generations moved further into the cave, perhaps believing that this would bring them closer to the lords of Xibalba. The closer to the gods, the better the chance the ceremonies would be answered.
A not-so-common artifact are human remains. So far, remains from fourteen individuals have been found; 7 adults & 7 children, all under the age of 5. These are not the ceremonial burials found in the other two caves in the area, but sacrificial victims. They were all likely sacrificed in the hopes of appeasing the gods and bringing rain. Young victims, particularly females, were important for rituals to be "zuhui"; Pure & uncontaminated in the eyes of the gods. The Crystal Maiden, her head appearing at the top of this page, was a young woman of about 20. It is believed she was clubbed and left for dead, and with the passage of time she has been cemented to the floor in a layer of brown calcite. (To reach her final resting place, you must climb aluminum ladders mounted on a sheer rock face!) The fellow that appears on Day Three of our Descent into Xibalba has marks of beautification; His teeth have been filed & shaped, and his forehead was flattened with a board as a child. Most likely a bead also hung from the board, between the eyes, to force him to become cross-eyed. The end result? A handsome young man by the standards of the day.
Shortly after having left the river, visitors will enter a massive chamber the contains over half of all artifacts in the cave. Artifacts appear everywhere - Watch your step! - and in many places are cemented in place by age, preventing theft by looters or visitors and collection by archaeologists. Much of the pottery in this area dates from the Terminal Classic and appears to be broken. In ceremonies, pottery was broken to release the spirits that were contained in the items, as part of the thanks for what the spirits had given to the Maya. "Breaking" the pottery ranged from small chips & little, keyhole punches to smashing into a mass of pieces.
This chamber, with its maze of rimstone dams around fragile, calcite pools contains some human remains. The handsome skull, mentioned above, is here. Deeper in this chamber, Mother Nature has created some beautiful stalagmite & stalactite structures of her own. Visitors must go on past all this to reach the Crystal Maiden, where remains other than the Maiden are also found.
Visits to the cave generally end with a visit to the Crystal Maiden. After spending some time in her presence and hearing the tale of her sacrifice, you retrace your steps towards the cave mouth. There's one last detour before you exit, though...
At (a very roughly estimated) two-thirds of the way to the exit, you climb out from the water to visit a small grotto. Within a stone altar has been built, with pieces of stalactites and a large slate carving of a stingray spine as the centrepiece. This altar is only one of the several known cave altars where the elite of Maya society conducted blood-letting ceremonies to communicate with the gods. Males would pierce their genitals with a stingray spine, while women ran a thorny rope through their tongue. The blood was collected on paper which was then burned in small bowls. It was then, through the visions seen in the smoke, that one could talk to the gods...
The total time spent within the cave is an easy 3 or more hours. I'm sure anyone who has visited has appreciated a dry towel and warm fire after making it out of Xibalba alive!
Discovered in 1997 when a member of the WBRCP made a wrong turn while hiking to Actun Tunichil Muknal, the main entrance to this shallow cave opens into the base of a 25 metre cliff. The mouth opens to a series of winding passages leading to small chambers and a second, smaller entrance. From the main entrance, a sacbe almost a metre high & over 2 metres wide leads to Cahal Uitz Na, a quarter-kilometre away.
Unfortunately, Actun Nak Beh has suffered much looting. Few will likely ever know what important artifacts were taken. Research conducted by the WBRCP in 2000 has resulted in some success though. Finds have included: Shards of pottery dating from the Early Classic (250-600 AD) to the Terminal/Early Postclassic period (800-1000 AD), some of the type generally used by elite members of society; Animal bones, snail shells & obsidian blades used in ceremonies; Three burials: The first burial contains one adult; The second, one unidentified individual; The last, two adults & an infant.
When we visited this area, we did not come to this cave, opting instead for some lazy time in the jungle, so we unfortunately have no pictures of this site.
Located roughly three-quarters of a kilometre south of Actun Tunichil Muknal along paths that take advantage of seasonal creeks, the large twin mouths of this cave are set near the top of a steep bluff. A hike up the face, steep but not long, leads to a small shelf that projects out from the cave floor. An overhang almost equal to the shelf is suspended above. The two mouths, something like the halves of a seashell, are separated by a thick column. Within them, smaller, interconnected chambers go deeper into the bluff.
An interesting feature of this cave is the way the mouths act like large parabolic reflectors. While we were never in a position to tell, apparently conversations held in the mouths of the cave can be easily overheard in Cahal Uitz Na and other areas in the valley below.
Within the mouths, artifacts from 1 to 900 AD have been recovered along with ceremonial human burials, complete with grave goods. While quite weathered, there are extensive carvings in the mouths including a set of small footprints that ascend the back of a large turtle that is both formed by and carved into the stone. Unfortunately, the head of the turtle has broken off with age. It is believed the footprints show where Maya boys would climb the turtle to participate in rite of passage ceremonies, where they would then descent from the turtle as a man.
Taking a look around, you'll see many small, white patches on the rock faces; These are homes to small & spindly brown spiders. What you won't see are two massive, white ollas, pots that are hidden 15 metres above ground, in a small mouth above and to the right of the turtle. These pots are only visible if you rappel from the cliff above and it's well worth the dangle to see them. They were most likely laid in their resting place with the aid of Strangling Fig, a plant the Maya would grow and use as a rope ladder.
Within the cave itself, after some small passages and crawling on your belly, is a tall chamber where the first handprint art in Belize was discovered. Four silhouettes of hands, side-by-side, on one one wall of the chamber were painted by taking a small amount of a substance, such as charcoal, chewing it with spittle & water and forcefully spitting the resulting coloured liquid over & around a hand placed on the rock face. Additional art to the left of the hands shows the Sun shining down on a Ceiba Tree while other drawings have been partially obscured by calcite formations.
This medium-sized ceremonial centre from the Classic period (250-900 AD), lies near the centre of the valley, at the triangular centre of the surrounding caves. Built specifically at this location to take advantage of the mystical qualities of the caves, Cahal Uitz Na is in an important focal point: While in use, the area would be cleared of wild vegetation and all three caves would be visible, looking imposingly down on the inhabitants from three sides.
Access to the site is along a small winding path from the field camp and like visits to Actun Nak Beh, requires getting your feet wet crossing through Roaring Creek.
Only some preliminary excavating has been performed on the site and the area is thick with jungle. Despite this, walking around the site does reveal a number of temples, a plaza area, and at least one ballcourt is present. A walk also shows the heavy damage caused by looters; Deep trenches cut into the sides of buildings, and in the centre of the site, a deep hole plunges downwards in a search for burial goods. Also located in the centre are six stelae, the ghostly face weathered by the ages on the one pictured perhaps mimicking the appearance of the twin cave mouths & shelf of Actun Uayazba Kab.
| Updated: 5:00 AM 1 August 2008 |
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