Balankanche Cave

Balankanche is an ancient Maya cave site lying at short distance from the archaeological Maya-Toltec city of Chichen Itza [1]. For more than two thousand years, it has been the focus of rituals dedicated to the Maya rain god, Chaac, and, in the Post-Classic period, also to his Toltec counterpart, Tlaloc [1]. The cave complex was visited by Edward Thompson and Alfred Tozzer in 1905 and has since 1932 been explored and studied by various Mexican and US scholars [1]. Small buildings and platforms surrounded the cave's entrance; inside, stairs, walls, altars and ritual displays of ceramics and small stone implements were discovered [1].