A few more from Xunantunich.



This is a temple that has yet to be excavated.  They ran out of money and could not afford to excavate all of the temples at the site.  Looks like a hill, but there is tons of history under there.



The view from the top of El Castillo.  I thought it was very cool that they allowed us to climb on the ruins and see everything up close and personal.  Would never happen in the USA, everything would be roped off and blocked from public access.  The white "road" you see to the left is the Guatemala/Belize border.



This last shot is the stone where they sacrificed their people to the gods.  It was done at the base of the temples, not at the top.  Hollywood always shows it being done at the top.

Well, you have to cross a river by ferry to get there, and it's a $5 dollar fee to get past the gate.  And they have armed guards hidden in the jungle along the border, but they aren't concerned with the ruins.  As far as going in there and taking something, there really isn't anything you can take without some heavy equipment.  It's open terrain and you can go do what you want in there.  Everything is pretty big and heavy though, unless you just want a pebble or something.

Very cool! I've always been interested in the Maya and other central American ruins. I'd love to see them up close some day. Thanks for sharing these.

Thanks everyone, it was very surreal standing on top and looking over what used to be a huge civilization, and just picturing what would have been going on during that time.