Lamanai

Welcome to Lamanai - from the river only the top of one temple is visible out of what was once a thriving Mayan city. Less than a handful of the ruins here have been uncovered, and the landscape is covered in small hills and rises, and virtually every one of them is a ruin site - a Canadian archaeologist spent thirteen years here to uncover the four ruins which are visible today - that's three years per side, now imagine, there are an estimated 700 Mayan buildings here, and think of how long it would take to excavate the entire village.

Here at Lamanai the Mayans never actually left, as most people believe they did at all sites. I personally am guilty of this - I always thought that there was this great mystery of where the Mayans went, and why - but that is not the case here. Construction on the City of Lamanai began more than three thousand years ago, and people have been there ever since - it wasn't until the 1980's that the Mayans themselves left for a new town just down the river when the government made this into a national park. That puts Lamanai up towards the top of the list of longest continual human habitations.

We started out tour (after lunch of course) with a hike through the jungle, learning about the various trees that grow here and every now and then our guide would stop and point out a rise in the jungle beside the path, where a home or temple lay, still buried by the jungle that has reclaimed the city.