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Caracol Review

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Caracol

Directions: From Mountain Pine Forest Ridge reserve entrance, head south 14 mi (23 km) to village of Douglas DiSilva, turn left and go 36 mi (58 km)

Category: Archaeological Sites
Location: Caracol

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Fodor's Review:

40 mi (65 km) south of San Ignacio, a 3-hr journey by road.

Caracol (Spanish for "snail") is the most spectacular Mayan site in Belize, as well as one of the most impressive in Central America. It was once home to as many as 200,000 people (two-thirds the population of modern-day Belize). It was a metropolis with five plazas and 32 large structures covering almost a square mile. Altogether there are some 35,000 buildings at the site, though only a handful has been excavated. Once Caracol has been fully excavated it may dwarf even the great city of Tikal, which is a few dozen miles away in Guatemala. The latest evidence suggests that Caracol won a crushing victory over Tikal in the mid-6th century, a theory that Guatemalan scholars haven't quite accepted. Until a group of chicleros (collectors of gum base) stumbled on the site in 1936, Caracol was buried under the jungle of the remote Vaca Plateau. It's hard to believe it could have been lost for centuries, as the great pyramid of Caana, at 140 feet, is Belize's tallest structure.

Cost: BZ$15
Open: Daily 8-4

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