About 60 miles east of Belize City lies the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, home to the Great Blue Hole (which only sounds a little dirty), a large underwater cave which formed during one of the last ice ages, before it was submerged by the rising oceans. Indeed, diving in the cave, one passes by massive stalactites and stalagmites, evidence that the cave was once well above sea level (put that in your pipe and smoke it, creationists).
The Great Blue Hole measures around 1,000 feet across and over 400 feet deep, this is far too big and near civilization to be very far under the radar, and given the warm clime it's rather popular in extreme diving circles, but I feel that it's worth mentioning here anyway. There are several "blue holes" throughout the Bahamas; a great collection of information on blue holes can be found on the Blue Holes Foundation's website (including an article detailing the find inside an underwater cave of the first ever Lucayan Indian ceremonial canoe and human skeleton).
Unfortunately, there aren't any decent photo sets of the interior, though a small piece on diving to the end of the Great Blue Hole (and a single shot of the bottom) albeit on rather hideously designed page, can be found here.
I love caves and mines (having spent chunks of my teenagehood exploring abandoned copper mines in Michigan's UP), and the underwater variety are certainly all the more exciting given the added possibility of drowning, but given it's proximity to Belize City and its popularity, it seems more the sort of tamer thing I'll opt for when I've a wife and kids, and have grown enough sense to stop shrugging nonchalantly at death (e.g. my father used to cliff dive, now he rents a minivan and drives the family down to Ocean Isle Beach, NC).
1 comment:
Great work.
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