Belize: Xunantunich Mayan archeological site

[Mike Buckley]

Xunantunich is a Mayan archeological site near San Ignacio, Belize also just minutes away from the Guatemalan border. Visiting it requires using the small ferry displayed in the third photo of this thread.

The three color photos were captured by my wife and post-processed by me.


Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3



Photo #4



Photo #5

[mugge]

Mike, very interesting to look at. Can you enter the sites proper, I wonder?
Cheers Ole

[Mike Buckley]

Can you enter the sites proper, I wonder?

Please explain what you mean, as I don't understand your question.

[mugge]

Please explain what you mean, as I don't understand your question.

Can you enter the pyramids themselves

[Mike Buckley]

Yes, you can climb the pyramids and enter them except for the places where a sign prohibits doing that as a matter of safety. I doubt that it's possible to go far into the interior of the pyramids because there has been so little excavation there but I do remember seeing a few sets of stairs descending into the interior.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[John 2]

Nice series and an interesting set of images Mike. The inclusion of the figures give a real sense of scale and the comps would have been less effective without them.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John and John!

The inclusion of the figures give a real sense of scale and the comps would have been less effective without them.

That brings up an interesting point. In most tourist situations, we photographers wait and wait for people to move out of the way or even use special capture and post-processing techniques to remove them from the image. There were so few people at these fantastic Mayan sites that my wife and I instead had to wait and wait for people to be included in the image when we wanted that to happen. That was true not just for the relatively minor sites we visited on this trip such as this one but also for the two major sites not yet posted that are national parks. Those two parks are so far out of the way and in one case requires lengthy travel on a bumpy dirt road that relatively few people go to them.

On the other hand, the site displayed in this thread is so beautiful and has six plazas with monuments excavated or not on all sides that perhaps it should not be called a minor site. As an example, the scene shown in the first and last photos is one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in the nine Mayan sites I've visited including two major sites in Mexico. Only viewing Peru's Machu Picchu from above might be better.

[Wavelength]

These images tells the importance of including human element in such mighty bodies..... Excellent images

[Dave A]

Wow the extent of these ruins are enormous. Your images really make me want to visit there.

Dave

[bnnrcn]

Very nice compositions Mike I think I would prefer to see all of them in color.

[terrib]

All very nice. I especially like the last one. The angle from which you composed and inclusion of the clouds really add to the beauty. And I like the monochrome, especially on that one, although the green grass also makes the color nice.

[Mike Buckley]

Continued thanks to all!

[bje07]

All very nice. I especially like the last one. The angle from which you composed and inclusion of the clouds really add to the beauty. And I like the monochrome, especially on that one, although the green grass also makes the color nice.

+1 Jean