Record #00414Nature archive
Sistema Ox Bel Ha in Quintana Roo, Mexico, ranks among the world's longest mapped underwater cave systems. CINDAQ's 2025 annual report lists 541.791 km of confirmed surveyed passages, a figure that may grow as exploration continues.
Current Record
541.791km
Current record value
Sistema Ox Bel Ha lies near Tulum on the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, where groundwater dissolution of limestone produced an extensive branching cave network. Changes in sea level subsequently flooded numerous passages.
CINDAQ has been resurveying and extending Ox Bel Ha since 2018. Its 2025 annual report's confirmed-data panel lists 541,791 metres, more than 160 cenotes and a deepest point of 57.3 metres. A narrative paragraph in the same report instead says the system extends to nearly 529 kilometres; the entry adopts the expressly labelled confirmed-data figure and discloses that internal discrepancy.
Mapped cave length is a cumulative survey result, not a fixed natural dimension. New passages, resurvey and newly established connections may alter the published total.
Credible sources support core facts; the comparison scope or corroboration remains incomplete.
Basis: comparison of consistent primary data
The CINDAQ 2025 Annual Report's confirmed-data panel on page 5 states 541,791 m, 160+ cenotes and 57.3 m depth; its page 6 narrative says 'nearly 529 kilometres'. The entry adopts the specifically labelled confirmed-data total while explicitly disclosing the intra-report inconsistency. QRSS's older Long Underwater Caves register lists 496,804 m for an earlier survey.
The 2025 report's data panel and narrative use different totals and no official reconciliation was found. Do not invent an explanation for the discrepancy. Exploration and rankings continue to change; 2025 is the survey-report year, not cave-formation or PDF-publication date.
Current Entry identifies the current entry in this archive; it does not establish that the record is still held today.
The record value on this page is organized from the public sources above. Measurement methods may differ; JiLuDB follows the unified method described for each entry.
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