Belize lies on the Caribbean coast between Mexico and Guatemala and is the only country in Central America with English as its official language. A small country of roughly 8,000 square miles, nearly half of Belize is preserved as nature parks and reserves, including tropical forests and 174 miles of coastline. It is a popular destination for scuba divers who come to explore the Belize Barrier Reef (the second largest barrier reef in the world), numerous offshore cays and atolls, and the famous 'Blue Hole', a collapsed submerged cave 1,000 feet in diameter and 412 feet deep. Tourists also flock to Belize to explore the archeologically fascinating Mayan ruins; there are believed to be thousands of Mayan ruins in Belize, of which about 600 have been discovered and excavated, many now open to the public.