ALTUN HA MAYA RUINS - GUIDED TOUR
For those of you who would like to read about your tour prior to taking it, we have provided the following information for you to review. This is an excellent way to help children explore the wonderful world of Belize. Take time to sit down with your children and read to them, what they are about to see. Feel free to download and print these notes provided in the PDF file below. We recommend taking these notes with you on your tour, as they will assist you in reinforcing important points in the minds of your children. If you forgot to print your notes prior to leaving from your home country, simply ask guest services for a copy and they will be happy to provide you with one.
ALTUN HA MAYAN RUINS
THE HISTORY
Altun Ha is a small, but surprisingly rich, major ceremonial centre occupied during the Classic period. As with most Maya sites, the true name of the city is unknown. The name "Altun Ha", literally "rockstone water" is a rough translation of the name of a nearby village, Rockstone Pond, into Yucatec Maya.
Despite its small size and seemingly marginal location, Altun Ha was an ancient Maya community of great complexity and wealth. It was an important link in the coastal trade routes, and had contact with the distant city of Teotihuacan at an early time in Maya history.
The junction for the access road to Altun Ha is located about 28 miles north of Belize City along the poorly maintained Old Northern Highway; follow the side road for two miles to the west to reach the ruins. The name of the site is simply a translation into Mayan of Rockstone Pond, a nearby settlement.
Mounds covered by trees and vines, the remains of what was once a great city, spread out over more than 25 square miles at Altun Ha. Excavations have been concentrated in the central part of the city, where more than 275 structures have been found in an area about one thousand yards square.
EARLY ALTUN HA
Altun Ha was probably settled long before the Classic Mayan era, perhaps as many as 2,000 years ago. For a Mayan City, the site was unusual. The soil is thin and poor, which has lead some to speculate that Altun Ha was a traiding center rather than a self-contained agricultural community.
Good evidence for this thesis comes in the form of a number of unusual green obsidian blades and figures turned up in a tomb at the site by Dr. David Pendergast, of the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto. The objects date from about 200 A.D., and are virtually indentical in style to others found at Teotihaucan, far to the north in central Mexico. This style didn't penetrate to more grandiose Mayan centers, such as TIkal in northern Guatemala, until much later, which suggests that trade and cultural influcense in Middle America might have moved initially along the coast, and only later to the interior. Altun Ha is less than ten miles from the sea, and just outside the swamp zone that must have seemed unlivable even for the resourceful Maya.
Agriculture might also have been important to the inhabitants of Altun Ha, not only for staples - corn, beans and squahs - but also to produce export crops, such as cacao. Other possible food sources were wild plants, game, and unique to the Maya of Belize, seafood.
-------------------
The ancient Maya ruins of Altun Ha are 31 miles north of Belize City on the old Northern Highway that passes through Maskall. (The new Northern Highway continues in a more westerly direction toward Crooked Tree Lagoon, reconnecting with the old highway at Carmelita.) The site of Altun Ha, located 6 miles from the sea, was an important Maya trading and ceremonial center. Here the sun was a focus of study; Maya prists wre buried within one of the tallest structures, known as the Temple of the Sun God. Altun Ha means "stone water" in Maya, and this name refers to nearby Rockstone Pond, an ancient water catchment ingeiously dammned and lined with clay for irrigation purposes. Near this pond stands a temple in which archaeologists found artifacts the Maya obtained from the faraway city of Teotihuacan, on the outskirts of present day Mexico City.
During its seventh-century apogee, Altun Ha became a focal point for offerings of such valuables as jade jewelry and carved pendants, as well as copal resin. At the top of the Temple of the Masonry Altars, such precious items were smashed into small pieces and cast into an intense fire. The precise origin and purpose of such sacrifical offering remains unclear.
Thirteen structures surround two main plazas at the site. The two tallest temples, Temple of the Sun God (the structure depicted on Belikin beer bottles) and Temple of the Masonry ALtars, rise 60 feet above the grassy plaza floor. Altun Ha covers an area of about 5 square miles and includes an extensive swamp north of the plazas. It's believed that up to 10,000 people lived here during the Classic period of Maya civilizatin, as late as A.D. 1000.
Visitors interest in birds are likely to be rewarded here. Brilliant green Aztec parakeets often streak by in tight formation, level with the tops of the temples. Ringed kingfishers rest on the summit of the Maya structures before returning to the nearby Rockstone Pond to fish. There are also trails into the forest for birders driven by the constant chorus of calls that echo around the two main plazas.
Altun Hau was first excavated by A. H. Anderson in 1957 and by W. R. Bullard in 1961, who undertook some of the most extensive fieldwork conducted at any Belizean ruin. This rich ceremonial center remained archaeologically quiet until 1963, when quarry workers unearthed an elaborately carved jade pendant. This discovery triggered an intenstive archeaeological excavation from 1964 to 1971, spearheaded by David Pendergast with support from Canada's Royal Ontario Museum.
Perhpas Altun Ha's most famous historical footnote is Pendergast's discovery of a huge jade headed replica of Kinich Ahau, the Sun God, in 600 and was owned by an elderly priest. At the time of its discovery, this priceless relic was the largest of its type ever recorded in the Maya world - almost 6 inches tall and weighing nearly 10 pounds. On rare occasions this Kinich Ahau repllica is taken on exhibition tours with other artifacts; eventually it will be displayed in Belize's long-planned National Musuem. Jade found at Althun Ha probably came from Guatemala's Sierra de las Minas, since this stone does not occur naturally in Belize.
Altun Ha is a small, but surprisingly rich, major ceremonial centre occupied during the Classic period. As with most Maya sites, the true name of the city is unknown. The name "Altun Ha", literally "rockstone water" is a rough translation of the name of a nearby village, Rockstone Pond, into Yucatec Maya.
Despite its small size and seemingly marginal location, Altun Ha was an ancient Maya community of great complexity and wealth. It was an important link in the coastal trade routes, and had contact with the distant city of Teotihuacan at an early time in Maya history.
The junction for the access road to Altun Ha is located about 28 miles north of Belize City along the poorly maintained Old Northern Highway; follow the side road for two miles to the west to reach the ruins. The name of the site is simply a translation into Mayan of Rockstone Pond, a nearby settlement.
Mounds covered by trees and vines, the remains of what was once a great city, spread out over more than 25 square miles at Altun Ha. Excavations have been concentrated in the central part of the city, where more than 275 structures have been found in an area about one thousand yards square.
EARLY ALTUN HA
Altun Ha was probably settled long before the Classic Mayan era, perhaps as many as 2,000 years ago. For a Mayan City, the site was unusual. The soil is thin and poor, which has lead some to speculate that Altun Ha was a traiding center rather than a self-contained agricultural community.
Good evidence for this thesis comes in the form of a number of unusual green obsidian blades and figures turned up in a tomb at the site by Dr. David Pendergast, of the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto. The objects date from about 200 A.D., and are virtually indentical in style to others found at Teotihaucan, far to the north in central Mexico. This style didn't penetrate to more grandiose Mayan centers, such as TIkal in northern Guatemala, until much later, which suggests that trade and cultural influcense in Middle America might have moved initially along the coast, and only later to the interior. Altun Ha is less than ten miles from the sea, and just outside the swamp zone that must have seemed unlivable even for the resourceful Maya.
Agriculture might also have been important to the inhabitants of Altun Ha, not only for staples - corn, beans and squahs - but also to produce export crops, such as cacao. Other possible food sources were wild plants, game, and unique to the Maya of Belize, seafood.
-------------------
The ancient Maya ruins of Altun Ha are 31 miles north of Belize City on the old Northern Highway that passes through Maskall. (The new Northern Highway continues in a more westerly direction toward Crooked Tree Lagoon, reconnecting with the old highway at Carmelita.) The site of Altun Ha, located 6 miles from the sea, was an important Maya trading and ceremonial center. Here the sun was a focus of study; Maya prists wre buried within one of the tallest structures, known as the Temple of the Sun God. Altun Ha means "stone water" in Maya, and this name refers to nearby Rockstone Pond, an ancient water catchment ingeiously dammned and lined with clay for irrigation purposes. Near this pond stands a temple in which archaeologists found artifacts the Maya obtained from the faraway city of Teotihuacan, on the outskirts of present day Mexico City.
During its seventh-century apogee, Altun Ha became a focal point for offerings of such valuables as jade jewelry and carved pendants, as well as copal resin. At the top of the Temple of the Masonry Altars, such precious items were smashed into small pieces and cast into an intense fire. The precise origin and purpose of such sacrifical offering remains unclear.
Thirteen structures surround two main plazas at the site. The two tallest temples, Temple of the Sun God (the structure depicted on Belikin beer bottles) and Temple of the Masonry ALtars, rise 60 feet above the grassy plaza floor. Altun Ha covers an area of about 5 square miles and includes an extensive swamp north of the plazas. It's believed that up to 10,000 people lived here during the Classic period of Maya civilizatin, as late as A.D. 1000.
Visitors interest in birds are likely to be rewarded here. Brilliant green Aztec parakeets often streak by in tight formation, level with the tops of the temples. Ringed kingfishers rest on the summit of the Maya structures before returning to the nearby Rockstone Pond to fish. There are also trails into the forest for birders driven by the constant chorus of calls that echo around the two main plazas.
Altun Hau was first excavated by A. H. Anderson in 1957 and by W. R. Bullard in 1961, who undertook some of the most extensive fieldwork conducted at any Belizean ruin. This rich ceremonial center remained archaeologically quiet until 1963, when quarry workers unearthed an elaborately carved jade pendant. This discovery triggered an intenstive archeaeological excavation from 1964 to 1971, spearheaded by David Pendergast with support from Canada's Royal Ontario Museum.
Perhpas Altun Ha's most famous historical footnote is Pendergast's discovery of a huge jade headed replica of Kinich Ahau, the Sun God, in 600 and was owned by an elderly priest. At the time of its discovery, this priceless relic was the largest of its type ever recorded in the Maya world - almost 6 inches tall and weighing nearly 10 pounds. On rare occasions this Kinich Ahau repllica is taken on exhibition tours with other artifacts; eventually it will be displayed in Belize's long-planned National Musuem. Jade found at Althun Ha probably came from Guatemala's Sierra de las Minas, since this stone does not occur naturally in Belize.