Altun Ha

Altun Ha is a Maya ruined city in eastern Belize, about 50 kilometers north of Belize City, continuously inhabited for over 1,800 years until around 900 CE and set within dense tropical forest. Far from a purely ceremonial center, it functioned as a prosperous mid-sized trading hub with connections stretching to Teotihuacán, the Gulf Coast, and the Guatemalan highlands. Its most celebrated discovery is a carved jade head of the sun god Kinich Ahau — the largest known Maya jade object — which now serves as Belize's national icon and appears on every bottle of Belikin beer. Visitors can climb the stepped stone pyramids of Plaza B, the tallest structure rising about 16 meters and offering treetop-level views over the surrounding jungle canopy. Several plazas and a dozen major structures remain exposed, making the ancient urban layout legible to the modern eye.