Cenote Sagrado is a natural sinkhole located at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac.
The Yucatán peninsula is a limestone plain and does not have any streams or rivers, so cenotes provide the only access to underground rivers. Cenotes are scattered across the peninsula, but the sacred cenote of Chichén Itzá was by far the most important to the Maya. In fact, Chichén Itzá translates to “At the mouth of the well of the Itza.
"Interestingly, many perishable objects were preserved by the cenote. Wooden objects for example, which normally would have rotted, were preserved in the water. A great variety of wooden objects were found including weapons, scepters, idols, tools, and jewelry. Jade was the largest category of objects found followed by textiles. The presence of jade, gold, and copper in the cenote offers proof of the importance of Chichén Itzá as a cultural city center. None of these raw materials are native to the Yucatán, so people travelled to Chichén Itzá from other places in Central America in order to worship the gods. Pottery, stone, bone, and shells were also found in the cenote. Archaeologists have found that many objects show evidence of being intentionally damaged before being thrown into the cenote. Some speculate that this intentional damage is meant to be like “killing” the objects as sacrifice to the gods.
Human sacrifice
During the exploration of the cenote, many bones of human bodies were found. While a variety of people were thrown into the cenote, young females were most commonly sacrificed, presumably because they represented power and strength."
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