World's Longest Underwater Cave System in Mexico

The Yucatan peninsula remains one of the most popular travel destinations in Mexico with visitors from around the world. Most tourists can be found on the white sand beaches and in the crystal clear waters on the Caribbean side, it is popular for cave diving as well especially now that Nohoch Nah Chich, the world’s longest underwater cave system has been discovered near near Tulum, Mexico.

 

 British cave diver Steve Bogaerts said he and Robbie Schmittner, of Germany, have found flooded underground passages connecting this cave system with the Sac Actun cave system, a discovery that shows how interconnected and vulnerable the Yucatan’s underground water system is.

   For thousands of years, Mayan Indians depended on water found in the caves and in lakes formed by sinkhole. Now that we know that the water systems are interconnected, it means that pollution in one can easily spread to all.Bogaerts and Schmittner spent four years swimming the length of the system, making about 500 dives with scuba tanks, linking one sinkhole lake to the next.