Caves of Hell

According to an ancient Mayan myth, mystical and spiritual do lead dead spirits through a watery path inside of a deep cave, where the spirits would have to endure horrible challenges before resting in the afterlife. Surprisingly a cave was just found, containing a 300 foot, concreted road that ends at a column in front of a body of water. Though this may sound like an odd discovery, it is actually quite often that Mayan caves are found near bodies of water. The cause of this is thought to be because Mayan caves and temples that have been discovered have almost always been associated with sacrifice or death. In the newly discovered caves, reside huge columns of stone sculptures of priests. The legend describes the caves as portals to other realms, including the underworld. In order for spirits to reach the underworld, and finally rest, they had to go through phases of monsters, oozing blood, bats, spiders, and other ferocious obstacles. A Mayan expert at Boston University, named William Saturno, believes that the Mayan “dimension,” portals were built by the Mayans after the myths. Evidence of this is shown through the Mayans efforts to build the portals near bodies of water. Though this is true, the Mayans also built their portals on top of pyramids in the jungle and inside of maze temples. The Caves and portals found by recent Archaeologists have led them to believe that the myths of afterlife were one of the most important parts of Mayan culture.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080822-maya-maze.html

Sheldon W.
Period 3