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In the Puuc area of the Yucatán peninsula, cenotes are absent. The water table lies more than 200 feet below ground level. Deep caves might be a source of drip water, but are insufficient to maintain the population that lived in the area. The Maya excavated thousand of bottle-shaped cisterns beneath the ground, called chultunob (sing. chultun) and surrounded their entrances with broad, plastered, slightly sloping areas to funnel the rainwater into the cisterns. In this way they supplied the water needs of the community.