Lamanai

  In Egypt lie the great pyramids, in Belize there are the Ancient Maya Ruins; both testaments to  once great civilizations. Today, we will be taking a walk back in history and visiting the Maya Temples of Lamanai.    When the city flourished, it is estimated to have had a population of 50 to 60 thousand people.  The city spread along the banks of the New River. Archeologists investigated 70 buildings, but were only able to uncover 5  of the 732 structures ( over 90 percent of the site is still untouched due to lack of finance).

Accompanying us on our tour are Mr. Rene Villanueva  host of the program “Belize Watch” and our tour guides,  Mr. Lascelle Tillett from S&L Tours and Amir Reyes and Ellio Avila from Reyes & Sons Tour. There are 2 ways to go to Lamanai, by land or river, but today we will be going by boat.

We traveled along the river of Strange Faces (the name the ancient  Mayas used to refer to the New river).  As we traveled, we noticed water lilies all over the surface of the river.  The Mayas believed water lilies to be  a symbol of royalty.

The word "Lamanai" means submerged crocodile, and the river is indeed home to many crocs as we were able to see.  The spectacular creatures lay basking in the sun along the banks of the river as our boat cut its path through the dark water.  Just before we started our journey  up river were we saw some spider monkeys and one of the dominant males, delightfully swung down  for  a banana.

As we made our way on the 26 mile journey up the New River we saw variety of birds including the boat-billed her on and  snail-kite;we even got to see the largest bird in Central America the Jabiru stork and  a rare and beautiful black hawk.  This is indeed a bird watcher's paradise.

 The banks of the New River are lined by the natural rain forest.   Some of the trees were covered with a variety of cactus, including the snake cactus. At the end of the river lies the New River lagoon and Lamanai where our boat docked.

As we set out on our tour on the well kept trail carved through the lush rainforest ,our first stop was at the Mask Temple. This temple was  built around 200 B.C. in honor of the sun god Kinich Ahau. The mask on the front of the temple is about 13 ft tall. We found out that there are actually  2 such masks that are apart of the structure the other, however,  is still enclosed. It is also the biggest mask of its kind in Central America ;the face is that of an Olmec person.

Our next stop was the High Temple, it stands about 112ft tall and 272 ft above sea level and at the very top is a platform from where visitors  can experience an amazing view of the rain forest and the New River Lagoon.  This temple was build in honor of the rain god Chac. The Ancient Mayan Elites would sit on the steps of the temple pavilion in order to view ceremonies and festivities that were held in the courtyard. 

 Our guide then thrilled us with stories of some of the events that took place in the ancient courtyards such as the Mayan ball game Pok-ta Pok. The Mayas played this game as a ceremonial event.  This was done in honor of the Jaguar.  Our guide explained that in Mayan belief the Jaguar is also a god.  The story goes on to tell how the calabash tree was considered to be a sacred, forbidden tree. In Mayan belief  females were forbidden to go near the tree.  The tree would spit on any woman who went near it and she would become pregnant.  One Mayan princess, however defied the rules and ventured near the calabash tree  and she became pregnant with twins.  She gave birth to twin boys and when they grew up  the demons of the underworld challenged them to a ballgame.  The boys  tricked and defeated the demons.  The demons became enraged and threatened to burn the boys to death.  As they were about to do so the jaguar rescued them and placed them both in the heavens.  One boy became the sun, and the other the moon.  The Mayas then played the ball game Pok-ta-pok as a reenactment of the game between the twins and the demons of the underworld and in honor of the jaguar that saved them.  After every game, the winners were sacrificed.

The Jaguar Temple was constructed in honor of the jaguar who rescued the brothers. The jaguar was also known as the Lord of the night, it's black spots represent night and the yellow spots, day.  The jaguar is  a symbol of power and authority.

 We also viewed The Stella Temple. In this temple  a stella was found lying face down at the bottom of the steps of the temple, carved on the stella was King Smoking Shell, dated back to 625AD. 

Our guide informed us that the stella fell and broke and the Mayas saw this as a sign of bad luck.  Inside the temple were the remains of 5 children that were most likely sacrificed.

This  brings us to the end of our tour.  When visiting Belize make sure you put Lamanai on your to do and see list . It will definetly be an adventure of a lifetime.