> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The Maya built pyramids over caves and underground lakes as gateways to the other world
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/interesno-chto-riadom-s-peshcheroi-byl-vozvedion-6-8-stupenchatyi-zhertvennik-prosushchestvovavshii-do-pozdneishego-vremeni-khersonesa/
- Published: 2016-10-08T14:16:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:57:02.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Faith, Ethnography

Interestingly, a stepped altar of six to eight tiers was built beside the cave, and it survived until the later period of Chersonesos.

A similar deification of caves is characteristic of the Maya, who raised pyramids over caves and subterranean lakes and regarded them as a link with the other world, a cradle of ancestors and the road to the next life.