The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1911-07-06


Yucatan is a vast limestone formation with lit.
tie or no surface water one may travel for
miles and miles and never cross river or brook
even chance upon a modest spring. Indeed
In the northern part, where most Of the great
ruined cities are located, water is fully 70 feet
below the surface OF the ground. The modern
Inhabitants overcome this difficulty by means
of wells and windmills, which AFFORD the only
source of water supply during the dry sea
son December to june excepting what little
rain water may have been caught during the
rainy months and stored in cisterns,
But of wells and wndmrls the ancient May.
as knew nothing and, generally speaking, had
Il not been for the great natural reservoirs
which nature had scattered here and there
over the country Yucatan never could have
been colonized.
These great natural wells, or. as the Mayas
call them cenotes, are found all over iucatan.
They are usually about $50 feet In diameter OF
sometimes more, and about 20 feet in depth 10
the level of the water. Biologists say that
these cenutes are places where the limestone
crust which everywhere covers the surface
of Yucatan, has become weakened by the
washing of subterranean waters and has cal
lapsed OF its own weight, forming great sink
holes or natural wells on n large scale And
now It Is clear why the ancient inhal tants
of Chichen liza so named their city. In the
course of their wanderinGS the general trend
of which was northward, the ltzas, entering
Yucatan from the south, finally reached the
two cenotes, around which ChiChen liza later
was built, but which then was probably moth.
ing but wilderness Here the striking contrast
afforded by such an abundance OF water in
country so generally parched could not fail to
have attracted their attention. The place must
have seemed to the thirsty wanderers a God
a.. s.Ft hi.
Ry right of discovery they claimed the place
and to. the city which grew up around the cen.
otes they gave the name Of Chchcu liza THE
Mouth Of the Wells of the Itzas."
The two cenotes at Chichen liza have been
known by the Mayas from time immemora
as the Cenote Grande and the Cenote Sacra.
or the large Ccnote and the Sacren Cenote, re
spectivey The first OF these only in former
times was used for the water supply Of the
city the Sacred Conotc being reserved for re.
ligious use exclusively. II is the latter, how.
ever and the religious observances held in
connection with it, which gave the city its
holy character. From far and near all over
Yucatan, and probably even from points more
distant pigrimages were made to the Sacred
Cenute II seems to have been the most holy
shrine OF the Maya people. comparable only
I'm importance TO the Mohammedan Mecca and
the Christian Jerusalem. In time OF drought
offerings of all kinds We're thrown into It
treasures and In cases OF extremity even liv.
ing human sacrifices.
Chichen liza today is somewhat changed in
appearance from the time when pilgrims came
from far and near TO appease with human sac.
rifce the wrath of offended deitles. Now the
city lies buried in a thick jungle, which has
steadily won its way into the very heart Of
the holy place. Colonnadcs have been over.
thrown and pyramids covered with trees to
their summit: courts have been lost In a
tangle Of thorn and creepers. and palaces
stripped of their sculptured establishment.
Desolation has spread everywhere In the
wake of the encroaching vegetation.