Location: Cayo District Map
Baking Pot is an ancient Mayan archeological site situated off George Price Highway in Cayo District in Belize. Its current English name is usually credited to many baking pots widely found in the nearby abandoned chiclero camp. Chicleros or chicle- sap gatherers used baking pots to boil chicle in the beginning of the 20th century. The industry and workers have left the area, but the name stuck with the ancient Mayan archeological site. The first ancient settlement on the site of the Baking Pot was found in Pre-classic Period on the South bank of the Belize River. However it rose to prominence and power during the Classic period between 5th to 8th century AD when its population rose to 3000 residents. Baking Pot went into a decline after its nobility left in the late Classic Period. Although it was still strong in the postclassical period. Its modest size and low population mean lower pressure on the enviroment. Baking Pot remained a small village at the time when Spanish conquistadors arrived to the continent.