Many refer to Sa'c Tunich as 'the living Maya site' because at first glance it looks like an excavated ruin. However, Sa'c Tunich is actually the museum-workshop of Maya artists Jose and Javier Magaña, who create contemporary Maya artworks from stone and clay, both for exhibition and for sale. Tours of the site include the nearby gibnut (small, brown-spotted rodent similar to a guinea pig) breeding program and the lookout tower.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. García Sisters' Place

0.96 MILES

The García sisters display and sell a wide assortment of beautiful black-slate carvings. These five sisters developed this craft, which is now widely…

2. Belize Botanic Gardens

2.53 MILES

The magnificent Belize Botanic Gardens, accessed from the grounds of Sweet Songs Jungle Lodge, hold samples of roughly one-quarter of the approximately…

3. Pacbitun

2.77 MILES

Pacbitun, a small site, 12 miles south of San Ignacio via Cristo Rey Rd, near San Antonio, seems to have been occupied continuously through most of Maya…

5. Ix Chel Farms

3.17 MILES

This herbal-cure research center is at Ix Chel Farms, 8 miles southwest of San Ignacio up Chial Rd.

6. Chaa Creek

3.38 MILES

Set along the banks of the Macal River, beautiful Chaa Creek is a 365-acre nature reserve offering extensive facilities to lodge guests and nonguests…

7. Cahal Pech

4.27 MILES

High atop a hill about a mile south of San Ignacio, Cahal Pech is the oldest-known Maya site in the Belize River valley, having been first settled between…

8. Green Iguana Conservation Project

4.5 MILES

On the lush Macal Valley grounds of the San Ignacio Resort Hotel, this excellent program collects and hatches iguana eggs, raising the reptiles until they…