Lam'an'ain

Lamanai stands on the western shore of the New River Lagoon in northern Belize. Its Maya inhabitants built temples and plazas above the water, including a structure decorated with a great carved mask. Unlike many lowland centers, Lamanai remained inhabited through the centuries after the Classic period and into the age of Spanish contact.

Spanish missionaries established churches at Lamanai during the sixteenth century, but the inhabitants continued to adapt older practices to the changed circumstances. In the wider Maya uprising of the late 1630s, the church and its outbuildings were burned. Visiting friars in 1641 believed the town had been abandoned, yet archaeological evidence shows that Maya people returned and continued to live around the former mission center long after Spanish control had weakened.