Fun Facts

Here are some interesting facts about the Mayan Riviera!

1 ~ The Yucatan Peninsula sits above one of the world’s most extensive underground river systems. The world’s two largest underground rivers are found in the Riviera Maya, measuring more than 435 miles. Also called “cenotes”, these underground rivers were formed by thousands of years of dripping water upon the subsoil’s calcareous rock. They were also believed to be sacred spaces for the Maya and an essential source of fresh water.

Cenote

2 ~ In the 2005 horror movie “The Cave,” divers become trapped with man-eating monsters in an underwater cave system in Romania. Most of the cave scenes however were actually filmed in the Riviera Maya.

The movie ‘the cave’

3 ~ Stuck for a destination wedding idea?

Couples can now celebrate a magical Mayan wedding with the beautiful backdrop of a cenote (sink holes) where the bridal party floats downstream on a kayak to a beach side reception!

Cenote wedding

4 ~  The Riviera Maya in the 1960’s was a vacation destination long before Cancun.  Divers, explorers and treasure hunters were boating over from Cozumel to the mainland back when the idea of Cancun was still just a glimmer in an entrepeneur’s eye.

Cancun beach in the 1960’s

5 ~ Cancun (pronounced Can-coon) is a Maya word meaning “land of the serpents”

kukulcan Mayan god

6 ~  It’s 2012 and you know what that means: The world is ending! Kind of. Maybe. Very unlikely.

The Mayans never actually predicted an apocalypse. There’s nothing in Mayan texts that specifically says “The world will end on December 21st, 2012.” That’s just when the long-form version of their calendar runs out. Unlike us the Mayans believed time is cyclical rather than linear.

Mayan Calender

7 ~  Mayan civilisation not only reached Mexico but also reached into Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and lasted for over 3,500 years.

Mayan Riviera map