In Maya mythology Xibalba (), roughly translated as "Place of fear", is the name of the underworld, ruled by Mayan spirits of disease and death. In the 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. To some of the Quiché descendants of the Maya people living in the vicinity, the area is still associated with death. Cave systems in nearby Belize have also been referred to as the entrance to Xibalba. Another physical incarnation of the road to Xibalba as viewed by the Quiché peoples is the dark rift which is visible in the Milky Way. Inhabitants Xibalba is described in the Popol Vuh as a court below the surface of the Earth. It is unclear if the inhabitants of Xibalba are the souls of the deceased or a separate race of beings worshipping death, but they are often depicted as being human-like in form. The place Xibalba was ass