Caracol - Capital City of the Mayan Empire

I decided it was finally time to visit Caracol. A site in the Cayo district of Belize where I live, that has just been a little too remote for me to have easily gone to earlier. This is arguably the largest Mayan city in Central America. The site had been occupied as early as 1200 BCE. It became the Capital ruling city of the Mayan empire after a great victory over their rival Tikal in 562 CE which had been ruler of the empire for many years.

It’s an incredible Mayan site to see and very unique as well. The pyramidal architecture of this site generally uses rounded edges which is a style virtually unseen in most of the Mayan world. The largest pyramid named Caana at the central plaza is gargantuan with a flat open plaza on it’s plateau surrounded by another three large pyramids.

At the base of this monstrosity is another larger plaza with a large pyramid across from it that has two equal stelae on either side of it’s main stairway. There are of course pyramids enclosing this plaza on either side as well with a ball court located behind one of them.

The entire site covers over 168 square kilometers and is said to have over 30,000 different structures on it. Many of them are still just mounds, as much of the city remains unexcavated. Just when you think you’ve seen all the major pyramids on the site, you stumble across more pyramids, more plazas, and I’m sure there are still more to be uncovered.

If you are at all interested in Mayan culture, then you should make Caracol one of your priorities for visiting. It is fairly remote from the rest of the action in Belize. It’s about a 2 hour drive from San Ignacio over the Pine Ridge and into the deep jungle within the Mayan Mountain Range. There are many tour guides willing to take you there, and I split the cost with a couple of fellow French travellers. There was only about 1 other tour guide out there with a group, and a few other individuals walking around the site. It makes it even more awesome when you’re sitting on a giant pyramid with no-one else in view, looking over this ancient city.

If you get a chance to visit, jump on the opportunity.

~Jambhala