From caves lined with skeletons to a temple next to a luxury jungle lodge, these 10 ancient sites are something you have to see to believe.
Belize’s Mayan archaeological sites may not generate the buzz that Mexico’s Chichén Itzá, Honduras’s Copán, and Guatemala’s Tikal receive, but they are no less grand. One of Belize’s greatest adventures is ogling at the impressive structures, which were built in the ancient Mayan era from the start of the Preclassic period (2600 BC) to the decline of the Classic period (AD 900). At its peak, an estimated two million Maya lived in what is today Belize, over five times the country’s present population. Here are Belize’s most famous Mayan ruins, bearing names in Spanish, English, or modern Mayan, their original names lost to history.