An artificial underground space participates in the broader symbolic category of the subterranean, the below, the underworld.

The specific construction of a chultún by human hands does not necessarily separate it from the cosmological significance of natural caves and cenotes; it may extend that significance into a deliberate architectural form, a human-made version of the naturally sacred underground space.

The repurposed chultún near the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá thus sits within a dense web of symbolic associations.

It is underground.