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Caracol, a Classic Period complex, covers 30-square miles and is the largest Maya archaeological site in Belize, Central America. The site includes five plazas, an astronomic observatory and over 35,000 buildings which have been identified. The loftiest among them, a massive pyramid (Caana) which is capped by three temples and rises over 140 feet above the jungle floor.
In AD 650, the urban area of Caracol had a radius of approximately 10 kilometers around the site's epicenter. It covered an area much larger than present day Belize City (the largest metropolitan area in the country of Belize) and supported more than twice the modern city's population. Urban Caracol maintained a population of over 140,000 people through the creation of an immense agricultural field system and through elaborate city planning. Caracol is noted not only for its size during the Maya Classic era (A.D. 250-950), but also for its prowess in war; this includes an AD 562 defeat of Tikal (Guatemala) and a subsequent conquest of Naranjo (Guatemala) in AD 631.
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Archeological Sites |
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