Abstract The closely spaced, isolated carbonate platforms of Glovers Reef, Lighthouse Reef and Turneffe Islands (Belize) differ significantly with regard to geomorphology and distribution of sedimentary facies, especially in platform interiors. Glovers Reef has a deep ( 18 m) lagoon with 860 more or less randomly distributed patch reefs. The interior of Light-house Reef is characterized by a linear trend of hundreds of coalescing patch reefs that separate a deeper ( 8 m) eastern and a shallower ( 3 m) western lagoon. Within both Glovers and Lighthouse Reefs, non-skeletal (peloidal) wackestone and packstone are found in shallow ( <5 m) water depths. Deeper lagoon parts are characterized by mollusc-foram wackestones. Facies belts are circular in Glovers Reef, as opposed to linear in Lighthouse Reef. The Turneffe Islands platform has up to 8 m deep interior lagoons that are surrounded by large land/mangrove areas. These lagoons have restricted circulation, are devoid of coral patch reefs, and are dominated by organic-rich wackestone. These differences are largely a consequence of variations in antecedent topography and in exposure to waves and currents from platform to platform. Differences in elevation and relief of the Pleistocene basement are most likely controlled by differential subsidence and latitudinal variation in karstification. Differences in exposure to waves and currents are created as the Turneffe Islands platform is in a leeward position, protected from the open Caribbean Sea by Lighthouse Reef to the east. Variation in Pleistocene elevation caused the platforms to flood successively at different rates during Holocene sea-level rise. However, all reefs investigated kept pace with the rising Holocene sea level. Sediment is now largely bypassing the margins and filling in platform interior lagoons. These examples indicate how local attributes of antecedent topography and exposure to waves and currents can be at least as important as globally operating factors such as sea-level fluctuations. This observation should be kept in mind when interpreting palaeorelationships in the geologic record.