MUSEUM OF BELIZE

Since 2002, the Belize Museum has been housed in the country's former prison, closed in 1998. Construction of the building, in bricks imported from London (bricks were used as ballast in transatlantic ships), was completed in 1857, and the establishment was inaugurated as "Her Majesty's Prison". Every window you see from outside the building marks the location of a former cell.

The exhibition spaces are small, but the Museum is an interesting place to visit. The first floor features a very good exhibition on the country's African roots, and dwells at length on slavery and the triangular trade: in Africa, Europeans exchanged arms and munitions for slaves, gold and spices; in the Caribbean, they exchanged African slaves for agricultural products such as sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco and coffee. The exhibition also evokes the fugitive slave communities that sprang up along the coast, notably at Gales Point Manatee (in a remote region between Belize City and Dandriga), and ends with the long process of abolition. On the upper floor, visitors can observe a number of Mayan relics (gems, jewelry, ceramics and figurines), and perhaps most importantly, explanatory panels providing pertinent information on the development of the Maya in Belize. A display of impressive insects and butterflies rounds off the show. Temporary exhibitions on the first floor.