Balance
The underground cave of Balancanché (also spelled Balankanché ) is one of the rarely visited Mayan sites on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico . The name means roughly 'place of the Balaam' (= place of the sacrificial priest).
location
The entrance to the cave is about 5 km east of Chichén Itzá and only about 250 m north of the CF180. The closest city is Valladolid (approx. 33 km east).
history
The cave was probably already built by the Mayans in the 2nd / 3rd centuries. First used as a place of worship in the century AD; Most of the offerings that have remained at the site (mainly ceramics) come from the classical (approx. 500 to 800 AD) and post-classical periods (approx. 800 to 1200 AD). After the Spanish conquest of the Yucatán by father and son Francisco de Montejo , the uninhabited site fell into oblivion and was only rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by speleologists and archaeologists from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) without recognizing its importance. The entrance to the core area of the cave, walled by the Maya, was only found in 1959, but it was not made accessible to tourists until the late 1970s.
cave
From the entrance to the cave, a path that is about 200 m long and gently sloping leads to a 7.50 m high hall about 28 m below the surface, in the middle of which there is a central pillar made up of stalagmites and stalactites around which an abundance of ceramic offerings (jugs, smokers etc.) are set up. The central pillar rises above a natural mound that was probably formed by fallen stalactites over millennia. On the floor of a side niche covered by limestone cliffs, there are almost 100 small rubbing stones ( metates ) made of limestone, arranged in five rows , which were specially made for sacrificial purposes; behind it are more ceramic jugs and bowls.
Some of the ceramics from the post-classical period wear masks in the shape of the central Mexican Toltec - Aztec rain god Tlaloc and indeed the central pillar is reminiscent of torrential rain. Another association is that of the sacred tree of the Maya, the Ceiba , which was also regarded as the world tree ( wacah chan ) or world axis , as it connected heaven, earth and the underworld ( xibalba or mitaal ).
meaning
Cenotes and caves were viewed by the Maya as entrances to the underworld and worshiped accordingly. In addition, they were connected to the fertility and life-giving element of water and thus to the longingly longed for rain; maybe other forms of fertility as well .
photos
Central pillars and offerings
Niche with rub stones
Laser photo of the cave
literature
- Hanns J. Prem , Ursula Dyckerhoff (Ed.): The old Mexico. History and culture of the peoples of Mesoamerica. Bertelsmann, Munich 1986, p. 265, ISBN 3-572-00851-4 .
Web links
- Grutas de Balancanché / Balancanche Caves 24 / I / '10 on YouTube (English)
- Balankanché - Photos and brief information (English)
- Balankanché - photos
Coordinates: 20 ° 39 ′ 31 ″ N , 88 ° 32 ′ 6 ″ W.