National Geographic reports that in an underground labyrinth discovered on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula, filled with pyramids and watery obstacles, experts wonder if the find couldn’t be a ritual chamber designed to mimic the torturous path to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080822-maya-maze.html

According to lead investigator Guillermo de Anda, “Caves are natural portals to other realms, which could have inspired the Mayan myth. They are related to darkness, to fright, and to monsters.” Though some speculate that the cave was designed to mimic existing myths in Mayan culture, a few experts suggest that it is likely this arrangement may actually have given birth to such legends itself. 

Not likely, according to William Saturno, a Maya expert at Boston University who feels confident that the myths predate the maze.  ”I’m sure the myths came first, and the caves reaffirmed the broad time-and-space myths of the Mayans.”

* Thanks to Marvin Bishop for sending this story along.