Russian photographer Anatoly Beloshchin has witnessed a lot of exciting adventures in his career — from getting to walk on the icy surface of remote Antarctica to swimming around with massive underwater creatures such as sharks, manatees and even whales.

Beloshchin and his team went scuba diving in one of the cenotes of Yucatán Peninsula. A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes crystal clear groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings.

These pictures were taken at the Cenote Angelita and spirals down almost 60 meters (200 feet). Beloshchin captured the peculiar underwater world in his photos. Fresh water with unlimited visibility makes up the first 30 meters (100 feet) and salt water the other half is separated by a mystical layer of hydrogen sulfate. This layer in the middle appears as a dense cloud from the top and strange colored hue from the bottom. Bring your dive lights, as you will need them if you are going to penetrate through to the bottom.

What does indeed look like flowing river is actually the result of a natural phenomenon called halocline. It appears when waters with different levels of saltiness form into layers because of their variation in density.

It’s eery and cool, right?

Anatoly Beloshchin is also an accomplished photographer on many other multidisciplinar areas: