Both the ancient and modern Maya people associate steam baths with ritual activity, the archaeologists said. For instance, the ancient elite, including priests, likely used baths not just to wash their bodies but also to symbolically cleanse their souls before important events, the researchers said.

"In the Maya beliefs, caves and baths are treated almost the same way: the places where not only the gods, but also the first people were born and emerged from," Źrałka told Science in Poland. "They are also considered to be entries to the underworld, the world inhabited by gods and ancestors. Caves and steam baths were also associated with the harvest and the place of origin of life-giving water."

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The Maya also constructed an easy way to enter the bath; both sides of the tunnel have stairs leading up to the steam room, which has rock-cut benches where the bathers could sit. Across from the entrance is an oval-shaped hearth, where large stones were likely placed, heated up and then splashed with water to produce steam, the archaeologists said.

Then, the excess water would have flowed down a channel in the middle of the floor, toward the exit, the archaeologists added. It's also possible that the Maya made a giant structure out of wood, stone and mortar to keep the steam from leaving the room, the archaeologists said.

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