We drove almost all the way across Belize (not an impossible feat, the country being so narrow) to Mayan Ruins dating back at least to 1000 BC.
Continuing excavations indicate even older civilizations, as tests show more than 13 distinct layers under the presently visible structures and 'plazas'.
There are two ball courts, where the ancients played a kind of base ball to mark seasons, resolve disagreements, mark life events. Players used hips and elbows only to propel the ball towards the goal. Games were even lengthier than cricket, lasting DAYS!! Whoever won, lost his head. Literally - the winners being the best one can offer as a gift, were sacrificed to the Gods. Apparantly people stood in line to be selected for the honor of going straight to the after life after beating their opponents. Today, only a little dog watched the bleachers - and followed us around to every chamber and hidden staircase of the compound.
Cahal Pech appears to have served as a luxurious retreat for select few. Inner Plazas with fortified temples and chambers were obviously reserves as dwellings for the Upper Classes and Mayan Priests.
Why are the Mayan temple steps so steep and high - after all the indigenous people are often less than five feet tall, and the steps could reach up to their waists? It is said, that the priests crawled up those steps on all fours, with dignity and decorum and the required amount of submission to the Gods awaiting their servants at the top. I asked myself, and how did they cart up those poor sacrificial virgins? And how did those short priests get down again?
Mayans had rather interesting ways of showing their devotion to their fierce and demanding Gods...see attached segment of a write up...all involved blood, gore, pulsing inner organs - and a few self inflicted injurys for starters.
They all seemed to have abandoned their various communities and temples from one day to the next. It is said, they overbred and overpoluplated, slashed and burned the forests, cultivated their corn and depleted soils and water supply to such an extent, that there was nothing else for them left to do, but pack their bags and walk away. No wheels, except of course for the round Mayan Calendar.
And that runs out in 2012...Maybe we are making the same mistakes as the Mayans? Armageddon here we come.
