Cahal Pech

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Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the Town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was a palacio home for an elite Maya family, and though most major construction dates to the Classic period, evidence of continuous habitation has been dated to as far back as far as 900 BC during the Early Middle Formative period (Early Middle Preclassic), making Cahal Pech one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in Western Belize^[1]. The site rests high near the banks of the Macal River and is a collection of 34 structures, with the tallest being about 25 meters in height. The site was abandoned in the 9th century AD for unknown reasons.

The name Cahal Pech, meaning "place of ticks", was given when this site was a pasture during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s. It is now an archaeological park, and houses a small museum with artifacts from various ongoing excavations.

Other vicinity Mayan sites include Chaa Creek,^[2] and Xunantunich.