The Maya Ruins of Lamanai Reserve - Belize

We're right at the entrance. We're really excited to get on in here and see what we've got to explore and everything. This location is about two hours north of Belize City, maybe a little bit longer if you choose to drive here like we did. You can actually get to the site by boat, which a lot of people choose to do. The site itself dates back to about 1500 BC to 1680 AD, so it was in use for quite a long period of time. The site itself is also laid out in a bit of a different format than most of the Mayan sites in the area, which usually exist around a central courtyard. This site, the religious structures and everything are pushed up there against the river with the residential housing and everything existing around those. But we're going to head on in and show you guys the layout of the entire archaeological site. So we're coming in here. We're going to go check out all of this first and loop our way back around. As you can see right here, it says the admission fees, non-residents, $10. That's Belize. At least that's what we paid. But yeah, I think right up over here behind me is the first spot, Jaguar Temple. Here at the Jaguar Temple, this spot is famous for the two massive jaguar sculptures on the front of the building. The actual site, this actual building here, is about 12 feet shorter than the high temple. But most of this structure runs underneath the ground. If it were fully excavated, it would be much larger than the other temple. And with a lot of breath coming up here, it's a really cool spot. Very impressive. And it looks like it's been restored remarkably well. This is so cool. I'm going up to the tippy top. There's a massive tree up here. And from up here up top, you can actually see the river. This is really amazing. A lot of my experience is exploring the Mayan ruins up through Mexico and different areas. You don't get to climb up on top of these. Teotihuacan is a little different. You can climb up. Those things are massive. But this is the first site like this where I've actually been able to fully climb up and explore the temples, which is really cool. I'm really excited about this. But if you look off over there, there's a river that you would take to come into the site. And I doubt we're picking up on audio, but we can hear monkeys howling and stuff in the background the whole time that we've been here. It's really cool. And if you look right over here, this massive tree sitting on top of the actual site. The structure here, the building itself, just goes to show you how long this has been here. A little history about Lamanay. This site is about 12 square miles. It's about 12 structures on the site, like main structures with 100 other buildings in the entire area. Lamanay in Mayan means submerged crocodile. And if you make your way down to the water, you can actually see some of those in the area. So right now we're kind of making our way through this area where you can see what were the foundations of actual structures and stuff. So these would have been rooms and different things. It's all winding its way through here. The site itself, this actual part of the site is called the Royal Complex. So yeah, reading this, the Royal Complex here, these were buildings that were used for residential purposes for the elite Mayans of this location. And you can see it's all laid out extremely well. I like to imagine what this must have looked like back in the day. Everything out here is so beautiful. So behind me is the high temple. It stands at 108 feet in height. And from the top, you can actually see all the surrounding areas, even all the way over into Guatemala. It's an amazing structure. It has some Olmec influence. We're going to climb up to the top and give you guys a view. It's so weird, like some of these spots, like when you're standing next to them, they look so massive. And then from other angles, they might not feel that big, but the amount of stone used to create something like this is just enormous. It's a full on pyramid. So from what we've been able to find and understand about the high temple here, it was used as an observatory. And from behind me, you can see all the way into Guatemala. And then in the other direction, we have the river running by. And you can see just absolutely a massive amount of distances in every direction. And in the background, if you can hear on audio, we're picking up the monkeys that are running through the jungle and stuff. This is a really amazing spot. So that was incredible. We're heading on to the next temple. I really hate to leave this spot. It's amazing. Hey guys, we are here at Stella 9. This site was erected at the end of the middle classic period, the actual Stella here behind us. It depicts Lord Smokingshell holding a double headed ceremonial bar diagonally across his chest. They discovered the remains of five children associated with shirt, shell and obsidian items. So this was a kind of like a monument built here, which is pretty cool. And we're going to take you up closer so you can see it. So right behind me is the ball court. Once some of these tourists clear out, we'll get a better shot for you. But the ball courts are typically used for games. The winner usually getting an amazing feast and the loser, well, loser gets his last meal. The goal of the ball court, as far as we know, would be to take a rubber ball and get it through a circle, which would usually be on the side of a structure somewhere. And yeah, doesn't sound like too fun of a game to me, considering if you lose, that's it. So guys, finally, we have the mass temple. It is the smallest of the three major temples. There are two main carvings on here, and they think that they are all make and design or possibly represent representations of the sun god. But as we take you up here closer, you're going to see the level of detail and craftsmanship in the carvings. So follow us this way. So what's really cool about this is you can see the level of detail in it, but they actually have plaster covering this to protect the original stone carvings from tourists and people touching it. It's really cool. So here on top of the mass temple, this temple, while being one of the smallest one, actually shows in much greater detail a lot of the Olmec influences because of the statues and stuff down there. Funding for excavation here is actually on hold. But what's been uncovered thus far is truly breathtaking to be able to come and see and experience for yourself. Make sure to bring good shoes because you're going to be hiking up to the top of some of these structures. Make sure to bring bug spray because the bugs are out in full force here pretty much 24-7 year long. And you know, other than that, plan a full day. You can actually fit Altun Ha in here if you're doing it and you have transportation set up. And when you do come here, leave yourself enough time to fully explore the place and experience this for yourself because it is an absolutely amazing site and a great representation of what Mayan culture and Mayan sites like this used to be like.