When it comes to Mayan temples as tourist destinations "Cerros" gets no respect. And maybe that's a good thing: after all, who needs thousands of pounds of heavy-legged tourists trodding up and down two thousand year old stairs?
But that reasoning doesn't wash with the culture conservators who also double as tourism marketers: they see vast potential in Cerros and plan to thrust it into the forefront as an archaeological treasure. So playing tourist for the day Alfonso Noble took the sea borne skip across the Bay of Corozal and found that the culture vultures are serious about Cerros.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
President of NICH Yasser Musa along with area representative for Corozal Southeast Florencio Marin cut the ribbon declaring the visitor's center at Cerros open. Director of the Institute of Archaeology Dr. Jaime Awe says that with this center information on the site will be accessed easily.
Dr. Jaime Awe, Dir. Institute of Archaeology
"This is a big step in providing much needed information on the history of the site both in terms of how the site began and you know its period of high achievements as well as its decline. But it is also is to tell us information about how Cerros fits into the greater Maya region. This visitor center will hopefully not just encourage visitors to come here but also students to learn about Belize's past."
And looking at the past and Cerros it offers some of the oldest information on Mayan presence in Belize and shows some of the earliest evidence of the civilization in general.
Dr. Jaime Awe,
"Cerros is truly a maritime community. It's just like San Pedro or Belize City, you know these are communities that developed on the ocean and a lot of their early development is a result oft heir location in areas that were ideal for commerce and trade. Places like Xunantunich or Cahal Pech are further inland and the rise of those communities follow different trajectories; they occurred for different reasons. Cerros was certainly a major commercial community from very early on."
"The area around here is about 52 acres and on the site is located the remains of this ancient city that strived between the early part of the first century AD. It has given us data that talks about how Maya society lives in what we call the late pre-classic period at a time when Maya civilization is still developing. On one of the structures or one of the small temples that we call structure 5C2nd, archaeologists exposed some large masks that were modeled in stocle and then painted in bright red and other colors. What is interesting about these masks is that on the one side, the eastern side, they represent Venus that is the morning star and the sun rising in the east. On the western side of the structure we see Venus as the evening star and the sun already going down into the underworld. This indicates to us that about the time of the birth of Christ the Mayas were already very cognizant of these celestial bodies and the movement of these celestial bodies and already utilizing a calendar that was 365 days and that was accurate as the one we use to today."
"Cerros is located on a very strategic location, not to say its not a beautiful location overlooking the Caribbean sea, but its location allowed it to take control of a lot of the trade that went inland from the coast coming from the Yucatan or coming from the south and a lot of this trade was for materials that were then taken inland to sites like Lamanai and sites in the Peten. Cerros is also very unique in that it's much earlier; the development here precedes the development at Xunantunich. In fact when Cerros in already declining, Xunantunich is just starting to develop."
That type of information and rich cultural value of the site is what has prompted mass investment on the archaeological site. Apart from the visitor's center it has seen the addition of bathroom facilities, a pavilion area, under brushing of the temples, the addition of a parking lot and an access road that is clearing the way for further investment.
Dr. Jaime Awe,
"The access road from Corozal town to Cerros is about 12 miles long and it was completed last year. I think it is an important development for several reasons but most importantly though is that it will open this area to further development."
"It's easier for us to bring in materials and supplies that are necessary for the development for the site. It is also important for tourism, it means that people who can't take a boat will drive here, it means that families from Chunox or Copperbank or from San Joaquin can come here and spend a day and picnic at a very beautiful location."
Yasser Musa, NICH President
"Our focus is that we want to develop this Corozal Southeast Area and its very easy to do from the standpoint that by September of this year we are planning to open the Corozal House of Culture which is right across the bay from here and in that old market that is an industrial building. By doing that people can then come across very easily, it's only five minutes by boat, so there is that opening on one hand and then the road is getting better - there are plans to construct a bridge where the ferry is and as well you can see when you came in the feeder road from Copperbank has been improved so both road access and water access will be improved and so we believe more visitors will come. The strategic placement of it - its right in front of you and there is no way you can avoid it and I think that is the central argument we have to make: it is something that is so accessible."
With a selling point like that the wonders of Cerros won't be a secret much longer.
Plans are underway to further develop Cerros by adding small souvenir shops at the site.