Belize
From Wikia Travel
|
Navigate: Main Page ...North America ...Caribbean...Belize Major Cities: Belize City (edit) Overview • Discuss! • Hotels • Restaurants • Photo gallery • Attractions • Shopping • Transport • Numbers to know • Maps • Everything else • External resources |
| Do you live here? Visit WikiLocal (Towns, Villages and Cities) for the locals. |
Overview
Belize is a small country located on the eastern coast of Central America on the Caribbean Sea, and shares its borders with Mexico and Guatemala. It was a British colony and it was formerly known as British Honduras. Area-wise (only 22,966 km²) it is a very small nation, and its population is 287,730. It is the only English speaking country of Central America. Belize shares its name with the Belize River, the longest river of Belize, and Belize City, the former capital and largest city of Belize. The origin of the word Belize is shrouded in mystery. Some believe that it is derived from Spanish pronunciation of Wallace, the last name of the pirate who created first settlement in Belize in 1638. Another theory postulates that Belize is derived from the Maya word, belix, which means "muddy water" and is applied to the Belize River.
The place has a long history and there are definite indications that the Maya civilization spread over Belize between 1500 BC and 300 AD and continued to thrive until about 900 AD. Europeans started reaching the place by around early 17th century. During the 18th century, it grew as a British colony and acquired the name of British Honduras. British Honduras became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973. Belize gained full independence in 1981. It had a territorial dispute with its neighbouring country Guatemala which did not recognize the sovereignty of Belize for many years. Guatemala extended its formal recognition to Belize in 1991.
|
Tips for: backpackers • business travelers • luxury/exotic travel • hitchhikers • families • seniors • LBG travelers • pet owners |
Hotels and lodging
Attractions
| Find out where to go in the maps section below. |
Shopping
Maps and transportation
Getting to Belize
Exploring Belize
Practical information and resources
Restaurants
Text with links to user-reviews on other pages
Nightlife
Photo gallery
| Add a new photo to the Belize gallery. Vote on which images to feature in the featured images forum. |
Everything else
| Got something to say that doesn't fit in the other sections of this page? Create a new page about it. Start by adding a paragraph exactly as above: for example, copy (from the EDIT BOX) the heading "Nightlife" and the three lines below it, paste in below that section, and change "Nightlife" (in all three places) to your new subject. If it's great, add a snippet below the heading. Then click on the new link and start on the new page. |
External resources
|
If you want to add personal links, please do that on your user page (you can also write your profile there). If you have a link with great content that travellers need, you can add it at Belize/Links |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Belize. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Wikia Travel, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
