Structure 5C-2nd

18.3858°N, 88.3778°W.

Structure 5C-2nd at Cerros in northern Belize, on the shore of Corozal Bay, is a Late Preclassic Maya pyramid built around 50 BCE — among the earliest examples of the fully developed lowland Maya pyramid plan. The structure rises in tiered platforms of cut limestone faced with monumental stucco masks: four enormous painted facades flanking the central staircase, each depicting the rising and setting sun and the morning and evening star. The masks were preserved because the pyramid was deliberately decommissioned — covered in fill and abandoned — within decades of its construction, around the time of Christ. David Freidel's expedition for Southern Methodist University from 1974 to 1981 exposed the masks intact. Cerros itself was abandoned at the same moment as the Late Preclassic transitioned into the Early Classic.

Structure 5C-2nd is a pyramid whose builders covered up its painted faces and walked away from the city within a generation of finishing it.