World’s longest underwater cave is found in Mexico

A tunnel has been discovered beneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that scientists believe could be the largest underwater cave in the world.

The 215.6 mile-long cave is connected by two of the world’s largest flooded caverns – Sac Actun and Dos Ojos in Tulum, Quintana Roo. The cave has beaten the record of 167.9 miles, formerly held by Ox Bel Ha in the same region.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Photo credit: Getty Images

The discovery was made by the research unit Gran Acuifero Maya which has been exploring the two caverns for twenty years in an attempt to find a link.

It took 10 months of extensive exploration before the caves were found. Science Alert describes it as an “underwater wonderland” that could also “reveal “lost secrets of the ancient Maya civilisation”.

“This immense cave represents the most important submerged archaeological site in the world,” says underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. “It has more than a hundred archaeological contexts, among which are evidence of the first settlers of America, as well as extinct fauna and, of course, the Maya culture.”

Photo credit: Getty Images

Exploration teams have found artefacts from Mayan settlers, who dominated the region at the time, including the remains of extinct plants, Mayan archaeology, ceramics, graves and even the remains of early human settlers in the region.

What also makes this finding immensely valuable, according to National Geographic, is that it supports a “great biodiversity that depends on this enormous system and represents an extensive reserve of fresh water that has given life to this region of the Yucatan Peninsula since time immemorial.”

Photo credit: Getty Images

The next phase includes an analysis of the water quality of the Sac Actun System, and a study of its biodiversity and conservation.