Belize · BZ

Lamanai Maya Ruins - Jaguar Temple

The Jaguar Temple is one of the great ceremonial pyramids of Lamanai, the "Submerged Crocodile" of the Maya world, rising from the jungle shore of the New River Lagoon in northern Belize. Officially catalogued as Structure N10-9, it takes its name from the pair of carved jaguar masks that flank its base, a feline guardian frieze that anchors the southern end of the site's long processional strip of temples. Like the rest of Lamanai, the Jaguar Temple rewards visitors who arrive the way the ancient Maya once did: gliding upriver through a wildlife-rich lagoon until the canopy opens onto towering stone. It is a destination where archaeology and jungle expedition feel like the same experience, and where the carved faces of a long-vanished city still stare out over the green.