Balamkanche located in and around a cave, is a Mayan word which in literal translation means "The Throne of the Jaguar", but balam here refers not to a jaguar, but to the title bestowed on priests.
Caves were places of great importance for the ancient Mayans, who considered them sacred entrances into the underworld ruled iver by the various deities of their mythological pantheon. In Yucatan there is an especially strong connection between caves and water and rain gods due to its numerous caves, which are veritable water reservoirs.
People throughout the Mayan area hold to the ancient belief that their cenotes, caves like Balamkanche, are refuges of rain gods.

The Balamkanche caverns have long been a magnet for the attention of local residents, and from 1932 onward no few studies on the caves fauna have been made.
For 10 years José Humberto Gómez, a tourist guide, explored the cave as a hobby until, on September 15, 1959, he noticed that one of the chambers did not have a natural look to it. On close inspection he discovered that the wall was of stuccoed masonry and that it blocked the entrance to other, unknown chambers, forming a seal which had not been broken since pre-Conquest times.

News of the find got to archaelogist E. Willys Andrews IV, who soon visited the cave. He inmediately realized that the sealed-off content was the most outstanding archaelogical discovery of recent times: various assemblages of offerings, together with countless invaluable artefacts, and all found in the very spots where they were placed hundreds of year before. Obviously, these chambers had such vital importance for the ancient Mayans that they devised an almost invisible seal to prevent trespassing by intruders.
Today we know that in pre-hispanic times the cave was used over a long period, because in some of the now dry passageways near the surface there once was water. This exceptional nearness of water to ground level on a peninsula without rivers simplified survival for any community, since elsewhere the water table was over 60 feet below the surface.
Analysis of Balamkanche's ceramic wares revealed that their use dates from the late Pre-Classic - early Classic period (300 B.C. - 300 A.D), and continued up to shortly before the Spanish Conquest - a span of close to 2,000 years. Most of the objects collected correspond to the terminal Classic and late Post-Classic periods (900-1200 A.D), which would also indicate the time of the cave's most intensive use.
At first the cave was devoted to the worship of Chaac, one of the foremost Mayan deities. He was the god of rain and water, both of which were fundamental for an agricultural society.
During the terminal classic, when use of the cave intensified, Chaac worship underwent certain changes due to intrusion by groups from central Mexico. The influence of these new arrivals touched on every aspect of the Mayans' way of life, including their art, architecture and religion in general. New kinds of worship and religious practices were adopted, which explains why the Balamkanche cave ended up as a place of worship of central Mexico's Tlaloc, this in an area where adoration of Chaac must had long been traditional.
Like Chaac for the Mayans, Tlaloc for Teotihuacanos, was the rain and water god. They linked him with Xipe Totec, the deity of spring and the renewal of plant life. No wonder, then, that many of the artefacts found in the cave display portrayals of both gods. Tlaloc worship was related to small utensils of the kinds found in great numbers at Balamkanche.

General Information:
Visiting days: Monday through Sunday.
Visiting hours: Every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nine tours of a half an hour each.
Services: Bathrooms, site museum, refreshments and meals, sale of arts and crafts, parking, light and sound show, botanical garden and watchmen.

Source: INAH