Can you guess what the ancient Greeks and the Mayans had in common?
The aquatic gate to the underworld.
This is the Greek one... The Acheron River...
And this is the Mexican one... Known as Cenotes...
What really amazes me is the fact that both civilisations -which are thousands of miles apart- had the same belief... That the river and these natural pits/ sinkholes represented the entrance to the underworld.
Acheron River (aka the "river of woe")
Acheron was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. According to the myth, the newly dead would be ferried across the Acheron by Charon in order to enter the Underworld. However the river was not a place of punishment and fear but a place of healing.
Cenotes
Cenotes were considered sacred places of the Mayans not only because they were a source of fresh water, but also because they represented the entrance to Xibalba, the underworld where their gods lived. There are thousands of them, scattered all over Mexico. These natural pools were supposed to be the gateways to the afterlife and the home of their gods. However it is also believed that in cenotes, rituals of human sacrifice took place...