To hear how to pronounce this word, go to our chapter 6 audio list for The Magical Maya Mystery. Click here!

A cenote is a natural well found places like the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.The word cenote is Spanish for the Mayan word dz'onot. Since this area does not have lakes or rivers, people who first settled in it sought out natural wells from which to get water. Logically, they ended up building their cities around these wells. Chichén Itzá had three original cenotes; now two still exist.

This photo is of a very small cenote without much water. Some cenotes in Mexico are very large and today you can go swimming or scuba/cave diving in them with organized tour groups. You may already know that the Maya sacrificed many valuable objects into the cenotes and in some cases, humans. The largest one at Chichén Itzá was thought to have been the well that most objects where thrown into. Why did they do this? To pray to their rain god, Chaac.