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Fifty-five kilometres north of Belize City and just 9km from the sea is the impressive Maya site of Altun Ha (daily 8am-4pm; US$5), which was occupied for around twelve hundred years until abandoned around 900 AD. Its position close to the Caribbean coast suggests that it was sustained as much by trade as by agriculture - a theory upheld by the discovery of trade objects such as obsidian and jade, neither of which occurs naturally in Belize, though both were very important in Maya ceremony. The jade would have come from the Motagua valley in Guatemala and much of it would probably have been shipped onwards to the north. The core of Altun Ha is clustered around two Classic period plazas, both dotted with palm trees. Entering from the road, you come first to Plaza A. Large temples enclose it on all four sides, and a magnificent tomb has been discovered beneath Temple A-1, the Temple of the Green Tomb . Dating from 550 AD, this yielded a total of three hundred pieces, including jade, jewellery, stingray spines, skin, flints and the remains of a Maya book. The adjacent Plaza B is dominated by the site's largest temple, the Temple of the Masonry Altars . Several tombs have been uncovered within the main structure, though only two were found intact. In one, archeologists discovered a carved jade head of Kinich Ahau, the Maya sun god. Standing just under 15cm high, it is the largest carved jade to be found anywhere in the Maya world; today it's kept hidden away in the vaults of the Belize Bank. Outside these two main plazas are several other areas of interest, though little else has yet been restored. A short trail leads south to Rockstone Pond , which was dammed in Maya times (and is today home to a large crocodile), at the eastern edge of which stands another mid-sized temple. Built in the second century AD, this contained offerings from the great city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico.
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