Road to Hell Found in Mayan Cave
Sunday November 16, 2008
Okay, so it may not be THE road to hell, which we all know is paved with good intentions, but a Mexican archaeologist says he believes he has found the place where the Mayan culture depicted the path into the underworld. Using "long-forgotten testimony from the Spanish Inquisition," Guillermo de Anda says he has located an underground network of roads, temples, and caverns in the Yucatan peninsula, and he claims the Maya fashioned them "to mimic the journey to the underworld, or Xibalba, described in ancient mythological texts."
De Anda spent five years combing records from trials held during the Spanish Inquisition, in which "heretics" from Mexican Indian tribes were questioned and tortured. Long after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the natives continued to practive their old religion -- which didn't go over so well with the Spanish. The trials of the Inquisiton were used to make the indigenous people reveal places where ceremonies were performed. Defendants consistently mentioned the same locations, and that's what caught De Anda's eye.
The labyrinth includes stone temples and more than a dozen caves, and has experts trying to figure out whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the complex, or vice versa. According to Mayan myths and legends, once a person died their soul had to "follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife." You can hear De Anda's commentary and see video at National Geographic News.
De Anda spent five years combing records from trials held during the Spanish Inquisition, in which "heretics" from Mexican Indian tribes were questioned and tortured. Long after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the natives continued to practive their old religion -- which didn't go over so well with the Spanish. The trials of the Inquisiton were used to make the indigenous people reveal places where ceremonies were performed. Defendants consistently mentioned the same locations, and that's what caught De Anda's eye.
The labyrinth includes stone temples and more than a dozen caves, and has experts trying to figure out whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the complex, or vice versa. According to Mayan myths and legends, once a person died their soul had to "follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife." You can hear De Anda's commentary and see video at National Geographic News.
Comments
So interesting! Have you read Jeff Long’s “The Descent”? It’s about a group of archeologists searching for a historical basis for a real-life Satan, and they discover these caves that take them into the underworld. It’s a fictional story, but it makes me wonder if Long had something like this Mayan cave in mind.