By: Alex Gamero

Trek deep into the jungle and journey into the ancient past.  Ounce part of great ceremonial and trading centers, majestic temples now lay mysteriously silent except for the occasional roar of a nearby howler monkey or the footsteps of a traveler.  The country’s Mayan archaeological sites are a reminder that within these primeval jungles, there ounce existed a great civilization that reached its glory when Paris was just a small village.  This was a cultural florescence that lasted longer than the Roman Empire.  The Mayan world stretched from Mexico through Central America.  Today, with the discovery of glyphs at Caracol (The Snail) indicating a military victory over the might city of Tikal in neighboring Guatemala, Belize is recognized as having been the center of this ancient Mayan world, with a population ounce numbering an estimated one million.  Although the collapse of their civilization is still a mystery, the Maya are still very much alive in Belize today.  Composed of 3 distinct lineages: Kechi, Mopan and Yucatecan, they still preserve their unique languages and cultural heritage.

Carefully observing the tropical sky, the Maya developed a series of complex calendars based on the movement of the sun, moon and planets.  They meshed together in a continuous system of cycles used for agricultural, religious and political purposes.  They invented the concept of zero and made astonishing advancements in math and science.  War and sacrifice were a religious and cultural imperative sustaining their gods and ensuring the continuation of the agricultural cycle.  The Maya carved stone monuments called stele, inscribing them with sensational stories of war and peace.  One of only five complete writing systems developed in world history, the hieroglyphic writing system the Maya devised was ingenious.  They not only recorded calendrical, astronomical and religious information, but their history as well.  And while it took more than 100 years to crack the Maya code, today the names of rulers, dates and achievements can be unearthed and recorded in history.

The oldest Mayan ruin in Belize appears to be Cuello (Maya Genesis).  Then came the Pre-Classic Period in which the cities of Lamanai (Submerged Crocodile), home of the largest Pre-Classic structure in the Mayan World, and Cerros (Hills) prospered.  In the Classic-Period, the crowning era of the Mayan civilization, the enormous cities of Caracol (The Snail) and El Pilar (Water Basin) rose out of the forest, and ceremonial centers like Xunantunich (Maiden of the Rock) built majestic temples and pyramids.  Steeped in thousands of years of tradition, these ancient sites boast many wonders to behold.  Lamanai (Submerged Crocodile) has a nearly vertical pyramid dating to the time of Christ; Caracol (The Snail) contains a massive edifice capped by three temples rising 145 feet above the jungle floor; while Lubaantun (Place of Fallen Stones) is a city built entirely without mortar! At the end of the Classic Period, the Maya abandoned their great cities leaving them exposed to the corroding elements of nature.  The cause of this abrupt collapse is still unclear.  Theories include a revolt by the lower class, a drought that dwindled food supplies and European diseases like smallpox that killed countless Maya.  However, no one really knows for sure what halted the progress of their culture.