The mining company faced a difficult choice. The pumps that kept the water out of the caves were costing millions. And the dry air was slowly destroying the crystals.
In 2015, the decision was made. They would stop the pumps.
Slowly, the water began to rise. The tunnels flooded. The massive, glittering beams were submerged once again into the dark, hot, mineral soup that created them.
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The Cave of Crystals was returned to the earth.
Today, there is no way to enter. The “Sistine Chapel of Crystals” is buried under tons of water and rock, sealed away perhaps for another millennia.
We were allowed a brief, 15-year glimpse of nature’s greatest masterpiece, and then, like a dream, it was gone.
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