Nohoch Nah Chich

Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich is an extensive water filled cave system connected with the Caribbean Sea via a coastal spring called Casa Cenote or Tankah Cenote and extending to approximately 8 km inland from the coast. Nohoch Nah Chich is Maya for Giant Birdcage. It is located south of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

For more than 10 years spanning the late 80's and through mid 90's Nohoch Nah Chich was systematically explored by dedicated cave divers. Mike Madden of Cedam Dive Center established the Cedam Cave Diving Team principally to conduct annual exploration projects to focus on cave exploration, while a number of cave research efforts were logistically supported, with contributions in the field of karst hydrogeology, water chemistry, microbiology and ecology, and archeology.

The technique of establishing jungle exploration camps at newly found cenotes and cave entrances was developed and refined during many cave exploration projects, thus allowing cave diving exploration effort to continue more efficiently at the edges of the known cave. The main camp of exploration became Cenote Far Point Station, located 6 km from the coast, and 2.8 km further inland then Main Base Camp situated a the main Nohoch Nah Chich Cenote entrance.

During the Nohoch 1997 expedition the 200 000 ft or 60 km of total explored cave passage mark was surpassed. In early 2007, Nohoch Nah Chich had a recorded length of 67 km when it was connected into and subsumed into the now longer Sistema Sac Actun ("White Cave") [Qintana Roo Speleological Survey] . The portion of this longer cave is now called the "Nohoch Nah Chich Historical section".

References

1 Quintana Roo Speleological Survey

External links