The Mayan Ruins of Xuanitich

Today is my final full day in Belize. Ashley was able to join me for a visit to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. Meaning “maiden of the rock” or “stone woman” in Maya, is situated on the Western Highway across the river from the village of San Jose Succotz and holds the second tallest ruin in Belize called El Castillo.

However, in order to get to it you had to cross a river in a hand cranked ferry. There really is a guy that turns a handle that pulls it along the river.

The most excavated part is group A (there are five) which includes the royal residence, a smaller temple and the larger El Cadrillo coming in at 136 feet tall. That is damn tall. The cool thing is you can climb these ruins. We climber up the mid level range before pushing for the top.

You have to circle around to get up the rest of the way and it allows you to see some of the carved friezes. In order to protect the limestone from erosion they actually cast the carvings and mounted the casting in front of the actual carvings to protect them from the weather.

Finally made it to the tippy top. It was empty except us, actually the whole park was really quiet except the armed guards patrolling. The fog you can see here is not fog but smoke. The amount of burning was stunning.

Looking out a "window" over the valley. You can see where this is in the image with the frieze, it is the triangular openings.

This is the back side of El Castillo. It doesn't look steep but trust me it was.

This is actually a ball court for Mayan sports. Not quite the Pirates Stadium but it is notable that games were held within feet of the temple and royal quarters.

We wandered around to the other end where the royal quarters were. This is looking back toward El Castillo,this city was atoned around 900 AD but it is not hard to imagine people living here.

They also had some smaller carvings in the visitors center depicting rulers doing the whole ruling thing. I forgot to take a shot of the placard so I do not know which ruler this was.

Returning on the ferry, the man hard at work winching us across. A modern system with a very old principle.

This picture is not so obviously related to the others. This under construction home in Belmopan is 9 stories tall, and I wondered when we drove back into town if the owner is trying to finally ankle the tallest building in Belize to surpass the current record holder, the Mayan temple in Caracol.

I will close out with the panorama I took from the top. It was odd to sit on such an old structure while watching the hills around it burn. An odd moment. We came back to Belmopan for wings at an outdoor bar where they played dub step. What an odd, fascinating country. >