It is the largest and most populated city of Belize with around 70 800 inhabitants almost a quart of the total population of the country. This city was some years ago the capital of the country, but in 1961 a great hurricane destroyed the city; therefore, the national government decided to move the capital to Belmopan in 1970. Belize City is located in the center of the country’s coast at the Caribbean Sea and at the mouth of the Belize River.

Belize City is also the main port of the country and the main economical center of Belize. The city is a mixture of rustic and old Caribbean style with bustling modernity. Belize City concentrates most important institutions of the country including the main educational centers and banks.

View of Belize City

This region was initially a small Maya settlement; but it was almost totally abandoned when Maya civilization declined. The current city was founded in the XVII century by British harvesters. British established here because of the excellent location of Belize City that is a natural outlet for local rivers, which were used by British to transport the trunks of logwood and mahogany that they cut. The population of the town grew rapidly at the beginning because of the great number of African slaves that arrived to the city to work in the forest industry. The British colonizers were constantly attacked by Spanish settlements for almost 150 years. In 1798 the city became the coordination site for the Battle of Saint George’s Cay, which was won by the British army, which allowed later to sign a treaty in Paris in 1763 to finish gradually with the continuous confrontation.

At the beginning of the XIX century in 1804 and 1806, the city was victim to pests that decimated the population like cholera, yellow fever and smallpox. But the city overcome these calamities and in 1884 was declared the capital of the British colony of British Honduras. The city was destroyed again in 1918 by a great fire, but it was reconstructed, how ever Belize City was razed in 1931 and 1961 by hurricanes; which caused the definitive change of the country’s capital to Belmopan.

Now, Belize City is the largest town of the country and the heart of Creole Culture. Some of the most traditional places of Belize City are its Creole villages along the Belize River Valley such as Rancho Dolores, Gales Point Mantee, Lemonal, Burrell Boom, etc. The city owns a very mixed population which includes Garifuna, Mestizo, Spanish, Lebanese, Hindu, Chinese Maya descendants amongst other. Perhaps, because of this cultural mixture; despite English is official languages, local inhabitants have developed an original dialect derived from English which does not use verb conjugations and uses abbreviations and especial accents for all words.

Currently the city receives a great number of tourist from the entire world, therefore some important parts of Belize City have adapted its ancient infrastructure to host the visitors, an example is the downtown Fort George area, a zone with colonial architecture that is today the most important tourist area of the city; this zone offers a great variety of services and products to the visitors; from guided tours to souvenirs stores and good restaurants.

Some of the main landmarks of the city are the historic St. Johns’s Cathedral , which is the most ancient Anglican Church of Central America that dates from 1812. Another important building of the city is the Government House which is a beautiful colonial building that dates from 1814 and host the Belize’s governor general. The Yaborough Cemetery is also an important place to the city’s history that tells us the complex history of the country since 1781. It highlights also the Lighthouse monument, one of the most representative symbols of Belize City that was constructed thanks to the donations of the greatest benefactor of the country the Baron Bliss V of Portugal whose tomb is in front to the Lighthouse. The Museum of Belize is other point that it must visit if you are in the city like the Swing Bridge, the only functional manually operated swing bridge of the world.

The city is surrounded by a great number of marvelous places like the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, the Monatin Pine Ridge Reserve, Archeological Maya centers such as Xunantunich and Caracol, Five Blues Ñake National Pak or of course the cays and the Barrier Reef which is probably the greatest symbol of Belize. The city is the main transport hub of the country; it has an international Airport that receives flights from several parts of the world. Belize City is a nice place to take as base of an exciting trip through Belize and its wonders.