Ecopark Kantun Chi is an ecological park with five amazing cenotes and a wonderful underground river located in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Enjoy an unparalleled experience wrapping all your senses when exploring its majestic crystalline waters. Let yourself be carried away by the tranquility, mystery and beauty of the jungle that surrounds this magical place. The park offers different routes, where you will learn about the Mayan culture, flora and fauna found here. Venture with a guide to explore the underground river and the different cenotes in the company of family or friends.
¿Are you ready for the adventure?
How is a cenote formed?
The origin of the cenotes originates from the geomorphological process called karst, which consists of the combination of the mechanisms of dissolution, collapse and limestone construction. These are governed by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which act on different scales of time and space, generating a wide range of forms and degrees of karstification. Intrinsic factors include lithology, the degree of porosity of the matrix and fracture of the rock. Extrinsic factors include the climate, the temperature, the vegetation, the mixture of fresh and salt water and the duration of the exposure to the process, resulting in the dissolution of soluble rocks (plaster, limestone, dolomite and halite) by chemical corrosion based on the prevailing hydrological conditions, which result in negative forms of the terrain and increased permeability.
Dissolution is the most important process in the development of a karst and subsequently an opposite process enables the formation of speleothems. A karst or Carso is a region of the earth's surface where dissolution erosion prevails over mechanical erosion and owes its name to a region of the former Yugoslavia where this process was first observed.
It’s safe to assume that every rock that that is soluble is karstifiable. The most common are limestones and dolomites, due to their abundance and high solubility in the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2). The higher the concentration of CO2, the greater the solubility. The amount of CO2 in the water depends on its concentration in the atmosphere and on the ambient temperature. For example, the presence of organic matter in the soil significantly increases the concentration of this gas.
According to Mayan mythology, the word “xibalbaj” is rooted from Ki’che’, which is part of the Mayan linguistic family, Xib’alb’á (‘Hidden place ‘xibil, hide’), name of the underworld.
The Mayan underworld was ruled by the twelve gods of death, known as the Lords of Xibalbá. Its court was under the surface of the earth and the two main gods were Hun-Camé (One-Death) and Vucum-Camé (Seven-Death). The rest of the lords were demons that worked in pairs, each pair in charge of a specific type of human torment: sickness, hunger, fear, destitution, pain and death. The other inhabitants of this underwater civilization were servants bewitched by demons.