Jonathan Miller, sweet grocery buyer and bee hive designer, checks the bees on the roof at Fortnum and Mason on July 22, 2008 in London. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Emergency services work at the scene of a bus accident on the Kingsway in central London February 2, 2015. A number 91 double-decker bus had its roof ripped off after hitting a tree, causing injury to passengers and passers-by, local media reported. (Photo by Peter Nicholls/Reuters)

Event curators Harry Parr (L) and Sam Bompas (R) sit in paddle boats in the Truvia Voyage of Discovery installation on the roof of Selfridges department shop on July 21, 2011 in London, England. Selfridges is opening its roof to the public for only the second time since WW2 to host the installation, which includes a boating lake with dyed water and bar. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

A cenote is a natural phenomenon, a sinkhole in the Earth’s surface. The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has an estimated 7,000 cenotes because it is primarily made up of porous limestone. For millions of years, rainfall slowly ate away at the limestone and a huge system of underground caves and caverns was formed. Many filled with water from rain or from the underground water table. When the roof of a water filled cave collapses, a cenote is born. The water found in a cenote may be fresh water, salt water, or both. Structurally it may be completely open, like a lake, almost completely closed with just a small opening at the top, or somewhere in between.

Commuters ride on the roof of a Jakarta state rail train at Cawang train station on January 27, 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

A gull gives its familiar cry on the roof of a beach bar on the Baltic coast on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Jens Büttner/dpa)