Physical Map Of Belize

Above: Physical Map of Belize.

Belize is located in northern Central America at 17°15' north of the equator and 88°45' west of the Prime Meridian on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. It borders the Caribbean Sea to the east, with 386 km of coastline. It has a total of 516 km of land borders - Mexico to the north-northwest (250 km) and Guatemala to the south-southwest (266 km). Belize's total size is 22,960 km², of which 22,800 km² is land and 160 km² is water; this makes the country ten times larger than the Australian Capital Territory, about half the size of Nova Scotia, slightly larger than Wales, and twice the size of Jamaica.

Belize is the only English-speaking country in Central America and the only one without a Pacific coastline. Many coral reefs, cays, and islands to the east - such as Ambergris Caye, Lighthouse Reef, Glover Reef, and the Turneffe Islands—are part of Belize's land territory, forming the Belize Barrier Reef, the longest in the western hemisphere spanning approximately 322 km (200 miles) and the second longest in the world after Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

British Honduras as it was then known before if gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, was a popular hiding place for British and Scottish pirates who would raid and capture treasure ships from the New World bound for Spain. Many undocumented shipwrecks laden with treasure abound off Belize's treacherous Barrier Reef. And modern history is rife with tales of buried treasure left by the many pirates that made Belize their lair from the 16th century.