The name Cahal Pech, meaning "Place of the Ticks", was given when this
site was fallow during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s,
led by Linton Satterthwaite from the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
It is now an archaeological reserve, and houses a small museum with
artifacts from various ongoing excavations.
The primary excavation of
the site began in 1988. Restoration was completed in 2000 under the
leadership of Dr. Jaime Awe, Director of the National Institute of
Archaeology (NICH), Belize.
Other vicinity Mayan sites include Chaa Creek, and Xunantunich