2283 BELIZE - Caracol Mayan Site

Caracol (which means "snail" in spanish) is the name given in 1938 by the british archaeological commissioner A. H. Anderson to a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located on the Vaca Plateau at an elevation of 500m above sea-level, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. It seems that its ancient name was Oxwitza' (Three-Hills Water), and it covered approximately 200 square kilometers, a lot more than present-day Belize City, and supported more than twice the modern city's population.

2036 BELIZE - The colonial architecture in Belize City

Founded in 1638 by British lumber harvesters on the site of a small Maya city called Holzuz, Belize City was once the capital of the former British Honduras, and remained until today the largest city of the country. Even if it slowly improved its infrastructure, many of the streets built from colonial days are still small and congested, a majority of houses are still susceptible to fire and damage from hurricanes, and the city is always awaiting something calamitous to happen.

2008 BELIZE - A mayan woman

The Maya civilization spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, and flourished there until about 900 AD. In the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation (600-1000 AD), as many as 1 million people may have lived in that area. In the centuries that followed, much of original Maya population was wiped out by disease and conflicts between tribes and with Europeans. Now, Belize has a population at about 340.000, from which about 10.6% are Maya, and 34% are Mestizo (with mixed Maya and European descent).

1854 BELIZE - The Garifuna village of Hopkins

To distinguish the descendants of Caribs Indians and Black African slaves from the Caribs who had not intermarried with Africans, the British colonial administration of then British Honduras named on the first Black Carib and Garifuna, and the last ones Yellow and Red Carib. For a long time, all the black communities living on the Caribbean coast of Central America are commonly called Garifuna. They speak the Garifuna language, a member of the Arawakan languages family albeit an atypical one, containing an unusually high number of loanwords from European languages. The Garifuna language was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2008 along with Garifuna music and dance (here).

1832 BELIZE - Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (UNESCO WHS)

The coastal area of Belize is an outstanding natural system consisting of the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries. The system’s seven sites (Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, Blue Hole Natural Monument, Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, South Water Caye Marine Reserve, Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, Laughing Bird Caye National Park and Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve) illustrate the evolutionary history of reef development and are a significant habitat for threatened species, including marine turtles, manatees and the American marine crocodile, and in 1996 was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, under the name Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System.

1801 BELIZE - An aerial view of Benque Viejo del Carmen

Located on the eastern bank of the Mopan River, at 130km by road west and south of Belize City, at the Guatemalan border, Benque Viejo del Carmen is the westernmost town in Belize. It was first settled by Maya from Noh Petén (subsequent Flores, El Petén, now in Guatemala), the last independent Maya state, conquered by the Spanish barely in 1697. It grew as a lumber camp, and the Mayas had been catechized by Spanish Catholic missionaries. Benque has long been the place where tourists and merchants cross to Melchor and purchase Maya textiles.

1102 BELIZE - The Keel-Billed Toucan, country's colorful ambassador

Belize is a country with a rich variety of wildlife, because of its unique position between both North and South America, on the Caribbean coast, and a wide range of climates and habitats. Belize's low human population, and approximately 22,970 km2 of undistributed land, provides an ideal home for more than 5000 species of plants, and hundreds of species of animals. In other words, Belize occupies a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.