Xunantunich

OVERVIEW

A Late Classic Maya city on a ridge above the Mopan River near the Guatemalan border, reached by a hand-cranked cable ferry. Its central pyramid, El Castillo, stands about 40 m and carries restored stucco friezes; the site was mapped by Thomas Gann in the 1890s and excavated through the twentieth century, most recently by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project.

HISTORY

The city flourished in the seventh to ninth centuries and was abandoned in the Terminal Classic collapse. The name is modern Yucatec Maya, not ancient: it means 'stone woman' or 'maiden of the rock', and was given after the sighting described below.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The tradition, first recorded in the 1890s, is that a local man hunting near the ruins saw a woman in white with glowing red eyes climb the stair of El Castillo and vanish into the stone. She has been reported since, always in the same terms and always ascending the pyramid. Visitors also describe whispered Maya voices and footsteps on the plaza. The site's guides tell the story as the origin of its name; nothing beyond the accounts themselves is documented.

VISITING

Open daily as a national monument under the Belize Institute of Archaeology; ferry crossing from San José Succotz, then a short climb. El Castillo may be climbed.