Belize City is over 300 years old, and even though it is not the country’s capital, it is the largest settlement, the most prominent trade center, and an important port. The city has colonial houses, wooden buildings, and cathedrals, including St. John’s Cathedral, which is the oldest Anglican cathedral in Central America. The Swing Bridge, dating from 1922, connects the North and South Sides, and is the oldest swing bridge in the world and is still in use today. The Fort George Lighthouse is another attraction that is still in use and looms over the entrance to the port.
Blue Hole National Park, located 15 miles southeast of Belmopan, has been open since 1972 and is named after the main attraction, the Blue Hole, which is a collapsed karst cave. The sinkhole is over 100 feet deep and 330 feet in diameter, and the natural pool right at the sinkhole shimmers in a beautiful sapphire blue. The park is home to several rare animal and plant species and is where St. Herman’s Cave, an old Mayan cave, is located. An excellent nature trail links Blue Hole and St. Herman’s Cave, running through the upper forest and past a small visitor center.
Caracol is the largest Mayan center in Belize, located in the Reservat Mountain Pine Ridge and remote upper Chiquibul Rainforest, and was once considered even larger than Guatemalan Tikal. The largest pyramid by volume in the entire Maya region, named Caana, is around 140 feet high and is still one of the tallest man-made buildings in all of Belize. Around 20 plazas are situated around it, on which there are some temples, and with a bit of imagination and thanks to the continual excavations, visitors can just about imagine Caracol 1,200 years ago with a good 180,000 inhabitants.
