Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1911-07-07


Yucatan Is q vast limestone formation with lit
tie or no surface water. One may travel for
miles and miles and never cross river or brook,
or even chance upon modest spring. indeed
in the northern part, where most or the great
ruined cities are located, water Is fully ~ 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 windmills the ancient May
as knew nothing, and, generally speaking, hao
1t not been for the great natural reservoirs
which nature had scattered here and there
over the country Yucatan never couio nave
been colonized.
These great natural wells, or, as the Mayas
coll them cenotes are found all over Yucatan.
Tlhav are usually about $50 feet in diameter, or
sometimes more and about 70 feet In depth 10
the level of the water Biologists say lha'
these cenotes are places where the hhes.on0
crust which everywhere covers the surfaces
of Yucatan has become weakened ny 'he
washing of subterranean waters ana mas car
lapsed of its own weight, forming great SIM
holes or natural wells on a large scale. Ana
now Il is clear why the ancient inhabitants
of chicben TIA SO named their city. In the
course of their wanderings, the general uehu
of which was northward, the ltzas' ehteflns
Yucatan from the south, hnaiiy reacheu tno
two cenotes around which Chichen ltza ia.ef
was built but (which then was propaply noth-
ing but wilderness. Here the STRIKING cohtias'
afforded by such an abundance of water III d
oonntrv so generally parched could not fall 10
have attracted their attention. The place must
have seemed to the thirsty wanderers a Goo-
given site for the location of their ne" nome
Nv right of discovery they claimed the piaoe'
and to the city which grew up around the cen
otes they gave the name OF Ch1chen Hza Inc
Month of the Wells of the ltzas
THE two cenotes at Chichen liza have Deen
known nv the Mayas from time fmmemorlal
90 the Cenote Grande and the Cenote SacSa'
or the large Cenote and the Sacren Cenote' re-
snactively. The first of these only IN iorInei
Zines was used for the water supply Vi 'ne
citv the Sacred Cenote being reserved lor re-
ligious use exclusively. 1t is the lat'e'' NO"
ever. and the religious ooserVances heiu an a.
connection with it. which gave the city us
80 ohorac+ar From far and near all over
vuco+en and probably even from points more
d,Stopt nilprimages were made TO the oacieu
Corote II seems to have been the most hoiy
shrine of the Maya people, comparaoie on4y
in importance to the Mohammedan -nec , at..
the christian Jerusalem. In time Oh oloue'
offerings of all kinds were thrown in'o ~,
treasures and in cases Of extremity even Nv
ing human sacr1nces hra5 In
Shichen TIA today is somewhat changed Ii
or0aorance from the time when pilgrims cams
from far and near to appease with human sac,
riAce the wrath of offended deities. NOV s sne
civ lies buried in thick jungle wnich mas
steadily won its way into the very nearl u
the holy place Colonnades nave oeen w. -
thrown and pyramids covered Win
49, a,~on,it. courts have been lost IN
tongle of thorn and creepers; and palaces
stripped of their sculptured emoeihsnile ~
Daspiation has spread everywhere In the
wake of the encroaching vegetation