A short walk from the Great Plaza is the Sacred Cenote, an impressive and mysterious sinkhole that was once the site of ceremonies to appease Chaac, the Mayan rain god with offerings and human sacrifices. The cenote was dredged in 1904-7 by Edward Thompson, the American Consul to Merida, and by the National Geographic Society and CEDAM (Mexican Dive Association) in 1960-61 and 1967-8, respectively.

Over the years, the murky water has yielded over 30,000 artifacts including gold, jade, copper, turquoise, obsidian, copal or incense, pottery, rubber, shells and the bones of around 200 people, mostly children and old men who had the misfortune to be selected as an offering to the gods.

Many of the most precious objects were recovered during the first dredging expedition and Edward Thompson smuggled them out of Mexico to the Peabody Museum where they remain on display to this day. In 1959 and 1976, the museum returned some of the finds such as turquoise disc, gold figurines and carved jades to Mexico as a goodwill gesture.

The ancient Maya were great traders and the ceremonial objects thrown into the well speak volumes about the extent of ancient trade routes and the wealth of Chichen’s ruling elite. Jade was mined in southeastern Guatemala, gold came from Costa Rica and Panama, obsidian from central Mexico and turquoise from northern Mexico and the area that is now New Mexico and Arizona.