From the air, the Great Blue Hole of Belize resembles an otherworldly maw, intent on drinking down the surrounding Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Geologists believe that an underlying cave system collapsed under increased pressure some 10,000 years ago due to rising sea levels. The dark hole descends 412 feet, terminating in lightless depths where a lack of oxygen prevents most forms of life from thriving.

CNN International has named the Great Blue Hole of Belize a top diving site in the world. According to the Belize Tourism Board, the famous Blue Hole is being recognized as the seventh best spot among fifty locations in a story written by Jade Bremmer.

Belize’s Blue Hole is featured as a Top Ten Amazing Holes Around The Earth according to ListVerse website, an educational website that serves over 10 million pages a month to more than 2 million readers and whose focus is to list things that intrigue and educate people from around the world. Every day the website presents a new unique list in any one of their fifteen categories from art & literature to science & nature.