The Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico is full of holes. 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck near what is now the town of Chicxulub. The impact created a huge depression and cracked the porous limestone bedrock. Over millions of years, rainwater dissolved the rock, creating underground rivers, caves, and cenotes.
Photographer Martin Brawn has explored 280 cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula and compiled these atmospheric photographs in his book. Light of the Underworldis currently in theaters in the US, with a release date of September 17 in the UK. This image, taken in 2020, shows a cavernous area of a cenote called Chan Actun Ha (meaning “little water cave” in Maya), in Quintana Roo, where cave divers explore among the pristine stalactites and stalagmites.
“When it rains in the Mexican jungle, the water washes tannins from the plants into the cenotes, creating a tannic acid solution,” Broen says. “These natural filters give the caves their surreal green, yellow, and red coloring.”
The shallow caves in the Yucatan Peninsula have been submerged under water for the past 8,000 years. “The deeper we dive, the more we discover the beauty and secrets of these caves, finding unique fossils of extinct megafauna, traces of the first Paleoamericans, Mayan artefacts and more,” Broen says.
But he adds that the cenotes are not just a window into the past, they are also “the veins that carry all the fresh water in the region.”With pollution, deforestation and development posing threats, Bloen hopes his photos will inspire people to take an interest in what lies beneath their feet.
‘Light of the Underworld: Diving Mexico’s Cenotes’ by Martin Bron is published by Rizzoli and costs £46.
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