墨西哥的潜水员们在当地发现了“世界上最长的”水下洞穴，这个洞穴长约216英里（347公里）。名为“大玛雅地下水层项目（The Gran Acuifero Maya project）”的工作人员称，这一发现将帮助我们更加深入地了解有关玛雅文明的历史。

 

The group of divers¹ spent months exploring a maze² of underwater channels near the Mexican beach resort of Tulum. Parts of the region were inhabited by the ancient Mayan civilisation³ before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

这组潜水员用了数月时间在墨西哥海滩度假胜地图卢姆（Tulum）附近对水下错综复杂的峡谷开展了研究活动。该地的部分区域在17世纪被西班牙占领前曾是玛雅文明的所在地。

 

With more than 200 caves, they thought there was chance that something record-breaking would be found below the surface – they just had no proof – until now. For the team has discovered that one large cavern⁴, Sac Actun, is actually connected to another, Dos Ojos, creating a 350km-long cave. Now for size, that's the equivalent of 7,000 Olympic swimming pools in length and in places up to 100m deep.

该团队已挖掘出的洞穴有200多个，因此他们认为很可能会在水下发现长度破纪录的一个，只是直到现在为止，他们没有找到证据。已发现的被称作“白色洞穴（Sac Actun）”的巨大山洞其实与“双眼洞穴（Dos Ojos）”相连，共同构成了350公里长的山洞。它的大小相当于7000个奥林匹克规模的游泳池的总长，而且洞中一些地方的深度达100米。

 

And it's not just the size that matters. The area also hosts a wealth of historical treasures. Guillermo de Anda is director of the Gran Acuifero Maya project. He said the discovery would help them better understand the rich culture in the region.

这个洞穴的重要之处并不只是其长度。这个地区还汇聚了丰富的历史珍宝。吉利尔莫·德·安达（Guillermo de Anda）是大玛雅地下水层项目的负责人。他说，该发现会帮助研究团队更深入地了解当地丰富多彩的文化。

 

But while its size makes this the longest underwater cave, it can't take the title of longest cave. That belongs to the mammoth⁵ cave complex in the American hillsides of Kentucky – thought to be near double the length. They'll need to keep diving to beat that one.

虽然它是世界上最长的水下洞穴，但它无法夺得“世界最长洞穴”的头衔。因为这个称号属于位于美国肯塔基州猛犸洞穴群，它的长度几乎是最新发现的水下洞穴的两倍。要想打破这项记录，研究团队恐怕得在水下继续寻找才行。

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