Tour Name

Caracol Archeological Site (Snail), Cayo (Belize)

Tour Length

Tour normally takes between 4-5 hours.

Tour Type - MILD

Tour requires a lot of walking and climbing, depending on the weather, it can be humid, hot, wet or just that perfect cool day. Long drive required to get to the site which includes 40 miles of off road conditions.(Your guide will make suggestions on what to take depending on local weather forecast)

What to Bring   

  1. Bug repellant

  2. Sun Block

  3. Hats/Caps

  4. Binoculars

  5. Comfortable walking/climbing shoes

  6. Dress to the weather.

Price

Price varies according to location.

Price from the central are of San Ignacio is $100 USD per person. Group rates are offered.

Ask our Travel Specialist about prices and transportation information from your location.

What is Included

  1. Transportation

  2. Licensed Guide

  3. Park Entrance Fees

  4. Water

  5. Lunch with soda or juice

Tour Chronology

Consider the drive in part of the adventure. Deep within the Chiquibul Forest Reserve, opportunities for bird & wildlife spotting during the drive are excellent. Montezuma's Oropendolas, a large chocolate-brown bird with a vivid yellow beak, nest at the site. You will hear them before you see them as they have, to put it mildly, a distinctive call. It is well worth the visit. On the site is the El Caana temple, the largest man-made structure in Belize, ancient or modern. There is a picnic area and outhouses on site.

Considerable differences not only in the site but in the means to get there now. There are set times to enter the park as a military escort is required. Last trip in is 11:00 AM. The site closes at 15:00. Caracol has benefitted from numerous archaeology and tourism grants which keeps the excavations progressing and tourist amenities expanding. The road is still pretty rough. In 2004, before the escort was required, we encountered a jaguar on this road at dusk.

Tour Description

It's not surprising that Caracol was found by local chicleros in search of sapodilla trees. What is surprising is that the largest Maya site with the grandest history in Belize was not discovered until 1938, and not investigated until 1951. Extensive field work since 1985 by Drs. Arlen & Chase of the University of Central Florida, has fleshed out Caracol's history considerably. We have heard to variations as to how the site got its name, one makes reference to the winding route to the ruin, and the other is that an abundance of snail shells were found there. Caracol is Spanish for "snail."

Habitation began approximately 600 BC and continued until 1150 AD. Various estimates put the site between 28 & 50 kilometres²/18 & 31 miles². At its height, Caracol is thought to have been home to 140,000 people. Water to the city was supplied by man-made reservoirs as they had no reliable river access. One of the reservoirs is used by on-site archaeologists & other personnel to this day. There are seven ancient causeways or roads leading to the site, the longest extending for 8 kilometres/5 miles. The tallest structure in Belize - ancient or modern - is Caracol's El Caana at a height of 42 metres/137 feet. Over 40 monuments document Caracol's political past, the most famous being the misnamed Altar 21.

Altar 21 is a ballcourt marker commissioned in 588 AD by Lord Kan II. Originally 160 glyphs chronicled events up to and including his birth. The ascension of his father, Lord Water, in 553 AD is noted, as well as two conflicts with Tikal in Guatemala. The first conflict is glyphed as an "axe event" that took place in Tikal in 556 AD. Most agree this event was an attack or raid by Tikal on Caracol and that a Caracol lord was sacrificed at Tikal. The next recorded date is a "shell star event", marking when Tikal was defeated by Caracol.

Caracol seems to have had big plans for itself from the beginning. By 70 AD it had a ritual plaza for astronomical observances. Its royal dynasty was founded in 331 AD. In 562 AD with the assistance of Calakmul, they were strong enough to defeat Tikal. Caracol's political alliances grew, and their population & wealth expanded while Tikal had a very quiet century. When Lord Water's second son, Lord Kan II became ruler in 618 AD he had his father's early ambitions. After affirming ties with Calakmul he attacked Naranjo in 626 AD, capturing a lord and sacrificing him a year later. Another "shell-star event" in 631 AD marks the defeat of Naranjo and another sacrifice. Naranjo did not regain their independence until 680 AD. There are records of two more captures of opposing lords, Lord of Ixkun in 703 AD and a group of three prisoners that included Lord Ucanal in 800 AD. The last inscribed date at Caracol is 810 AD, but the existance of Terminal Classic refuse sites lead archaeologists to believe that the site remained populated in a reduced state until