King Double Bird of Tikal loses the battle and his life on the alter in 562 A.D. WHEN BELIZE CONQUERED EASTERN GUATEMALA!

THE KINGDOM OF CARACOL FROM WHAT TODAY IS BELIZE, CONQUERED THE CAPITAL OF THE INTERIOR CENTRAL MAYAN KINGDOMS CAPITAL AT TIKAL IN 562 A.D.

Tikal was the metropolitan central Kingdom of the Mayan Empire Federated Kingdoms authority back in the 500's A.D. Lord Waters, King of Caracol which today is in Belize, tried twice to conquer TIKAL and succeeded on his second attempt in 562 A.D.
King Double Bird of Tikal loses his life along with all of his nobles at the sacrifical altar after his defeat.
TIKAL was overlord to many smaller city states scattered throughout what today is the Department of the Peten of modern day Guatemala. Here are some of the names of the city states which would have gone over to Lord Waters of Caracol after the conquest of TIKAL. Yaluch, Nakum, Uaxactun, Xaltan, Holmul, Mananatia, Naranjo, Xunantunich, Yaxha, Ixcun, Sacal, Machaquila, Naj Punti, Pusilha, Cancueh, Tres Islas, El Ceibal, Tarmarindito, Aguatecas, Dos Pilas, El Pabellion, La Amelia, El Caribe, El Planchon, Yaxchilan, La Pasadita, Piedras Negras, Mactun, La Reina, El Tintal, Zacatel, Xultun, Kinal, Chan Chich, Xmakaba, La Honradez, Kinal, Rio Azul, Paso Caballos, Potol, Ixpone, El Porvenir, El Pilar.
Today all of these city states temple sites can be visited by car throughout the Peten and Belize. They have for the most part been excavated and new ones are continuing to be done so.
In Mayan warfare the nobles were sacrificed on the losing side. This depicts the last sight that King Lord Double Bird of Tikal saw in this life.

This original pencil sketch is available for $750 USA. PRINTS by photocopy are available for $19.95 usa, plus $6 usa postage and handling. ( prints are limited to 2000 copies, each dated and numbered, signed by the artist for collectors purposes. ) This piece of history was depicted by artist Ray Auxillou in May, 2009 of Belize. Send email to: hillviewhacienda@yahoo.com

BELIZE joins with Guatemala over border Mayan ruins of EL PILAR

Guatemala - BELIZE. The Mayan City of El Pilar was first mapped out by archeologist Anabel Ford in 1983. Anabel Ford had been working in the Mayan jungle since 1972 as a researcher from University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB. The Archaeological site El Pilar straddles the borders of Belize and Guatemala.

Now the initiative to turn the site into a peace park will become a reality. A Memorandum of Understanding between Guatemalan officials and UCSB will be signed on the 22 of October in Santa Barbara. Guatemalan dignitaries Hector Escobedo, director general of the Directorate of Cultural and Natural Patrimony in Guatemala; Erick Ponciano, director of the Institute of Culture and History; and Vilma Fialko, coordinator of the Project of Archaeological Site Protection of Petén will sign the Memorandum as representatives of the Guatemalan Government.

The El Pilar Peace Park Initiative is a collaborative research project on both sides of the Guatemala and Belize borders. The signing of the MOU marks the 25th anniversary of Ford's discovery of El Pilar.

Several organizations dedicated to the preservation of archeological and cultural heritage will participate, Exploring Solutions Past ~ The Maya Forest Alliance, MesoAmerican Research Center at UCSB and Institute of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, ISBER.

After the signing of the MOU, an exhibit focusing on El Pilar will continue through October 31. The exhibit includes maps of El Pilar, the Maya forest, and the forest garden, and wall-sized panels that feature photographer Macduff Everton's images documenting the research of El Pilar.

Anabel Ford explains that El Pilar at its most vibrant, the period from A.D. 600 to 900, had a population of more than 20,000 people who lived in a mosaic landscape of city homes and gardens. This contrasted with areas of forest reserve and agricultural fields, such as present-day traditional Maya forest gardens. Today, El Pilar is at the heart of a 5,000-acre archaeological reserve linking Belize and Guatemala and celebrating the culture and nature of the Maya forest.

http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize/

WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS!

We had a guest rode up on his motorbike the other day. Turned out to be a University Student from the UK, who is in Belmopan, living with a family and attending University of Belize for the FALL semester, a no credit semester for Foreign Travel Education. William Pooley is 23 years old and has been in Venezuela he said. He goes to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, wherever that might be? He had an interesting story of going to El Mirador, an ancient Mayan metropolis of millions of people with a pyramid supposed to be bigger than anything in Egypt or the rest of the world, which is a six day round trip from Flores, in the Peten through difficult jungle. This is a new city archeological escavation of a metropolis that once housed millions of people on the border of Mexico, but in Guatemala northern Peten jungles. Mexico about 20 miles away has another big metropolis buried under the same jungle too. Anyway, El Mirador has teams of archeologists excavating the temples. William took a tour out of Los Amigos Hostel, in Flores, Peten, Guatemala across the border from here in Belize. About 2 hours in a mini-bus. The tour takes you to a jungle village where you camp overnight, then a mule train is organized and you tramp the jungle trails for 6 hours for two days to get to the excavation site. Camping gear, drinking water and food are all carried on mules from the remote village jump off point. William the student said, that the roads in this ancient metropolitan area are wider than a six lane freeway in England. Overgrown with high jungle trees, but flat topped still with clear cut sides and high above the jungle floor. William was off to the Belize Alps and the Mountain Pine Ridge foothills today Sunday and we enjoyed having him, as we were also empty, being in the FALL OFF-SEASON for tourism. This is the time we do renovations and repainting and repairs during the FALL months and go on vacation ourselves.

http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize