Nohmul is an ancient Mayan pre- Columbian
archaeological site situated in Orange Walk District of Belize.
Nohmul Archaeological Site was found around 4th century BC. It
quickly rose to prominence as one of the most important cities in
the Mayan World at the time. However in the 5th century AD it seems
that Nohmul was conquered by a foreign nation or a neighbouring
Mayan city state. For several centuries all construction ceased.
However shortly thereafter Nohmul was resettled. It existed until
12th century when it was it was finally abandoned. Unfortunately
much of the site lays unexplored, while the largest building on the
site, the central pyramid was demolished by local construction
company. Apparently few potholes had to be filled and they couldn't
find a better solution than to destroy beautiful pyramid. Today only
the core of the Nohmul pyramid remains in place, but originally it
reached a height of 17 meters (56 feet) with a base measuring 50
meters by 52 meters in width and length respectively.
"Geniuses" destroying the main pyramid of historic town of Nohmul in
2013. Apparently better technologies can't replace common sense
The first published reference to Nohmul occurs in
Thomas Gann's 1897 paper "On the Contents of Some Ancient Mounds in
Central America". Gann performed several excavations at the site
between 1908 and 1936. Several of the artifacts collected by Gann
are now housed at the British Museum in London.
Prehistoric
features at the site were first mapped in 1973 by Norman Hammond.
Hammond returned with a small team in the 1980s to do a series of
excavations known as The Nohmul Project.