Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America.

It has volcanoes, lakes and rainforest. Many Maya people live there. The capital is Guatemala City.

Guatemala is just south of Mexico, with Belize, Honduras and El Salvador as its other neighbors. It has a short coast on the Caribbean and a long one on the Pacific. Spanish is the official language, but more than 20 Mayan languages are spoken too.

Guatemala City, the capital, is the country's biggest city and its center of government and business. The 2018 census, adjusted by the national statistics office to count people who were missed, gives about 16.3 million people.

Britannica notes that the name Guatemala is Indigenous but of undetermined meaning: perhaps Quauhtemallan, 'land of trees', or Guhatezmalha, 'mountain of vomiting water', a reference to volcanic eruptions. Guatemala came under democratic rule in 1985, and elections have been held regularly since the 1996 peace accords.

The 2018 census, adjusted by the National Statistics Institute (INE) to count people who were missed, gives 16,346,950 people: INE presented a direct count of 14,901,286 in September 2019, then published the adjusted total, reflecting an estimated 9% of people missed (census omission).

Tikal is a very old Maya city in the jungle.

It has tall stone temples. Antigua is a pretty old town with a yellow arch. Guatemala City is big and busy.

In the rainforest of the Petén region stands Tikal, one of the great cities of the Maya, lived in from about 600 BCE to about 900 CE. Its temples and palaces rise above the trees. It is a World Heritage Site.

Antigua Guatemala was the colonial capital until an earthquake destroyed much of it in 1773. Its ruins and old streets are a World Heritage Site too; the photo shows its Santa Catalina Arch. The capital then moved to Guatemala City, founded in 1776, which today is the country's center of government, business and transport.

UNESCO describes Tikal as one of the major sites of Maya civilization, inhabited from the 6th century BCE to the 10th century CE, with a ceremonial center of temples, palaces and plazas reached by ramps and dwellings scattered through the surrounding forest. Quiriguá, another Maya site, is also inscribed.

Antigua, capital of the Captaincy-General of Guatemala from the early 16th century, was built on a Renaissance-inspired grid at 1,500 m; an earthquake largely destroyed it in 1773, but its principal monuments survive as ruins. Guatemala City replaced it in 1776, was largely rebuilt after the 1917–18 earthquakes, and lies at 1,493 m in a highland valley. Quetzaltenango is the main city of the western highlands.

A long line of volcanoes stands in the south.

Some of them still puff smoke. In the north is a huge, flat rainforest. Lake Atitlán sits among volcanoes.

Guatemala has four main kinds of land. In the south, 27 volcanoes stretch about 300 kilometers from Mexico to El Salvador; Fuego, Pacaya and Santiaguito are always active. Below them, a fertile plain slopes to the Pacific. In the middle are high mountains and valleys, and in the north is the low, flat Petén, covered in rainforest.

The highest point is the volcano Tajumulco, about 4,220 meters. Temperatures depend on height: warm in the lowlands and cool in the mountains. Most places are dry from November to April.

Britannica describes four regions: a 300-km chain of 27 volcanoes, from Tacaná (4,093 m) on the Mexican border through Tajumulco (4,220 m, the highest), with three continuously active volcanoes, Santiaguito on Santa María's flank, Fuego (3,835 m) and Pacaya (2,552 m); the fertile Pacific coastal plain; the central sierras and valleys; and the Petén, a limestone lowland on the Yucatán Peninsula. Three-fourths of the population lives in the volcanic region and Pacific slope, where eruptions and earthquakes have repeatedly caused heavy losses.

Temperatures average 21–27 °C below 900 m and 10–16 °C between 1,500 and 2,700 m. The Motagua valley is nearly desert, while windward slopes exceed 3,800 mm of rain a year. Rainforest and savanna cover the Petén, oak and pine the sierras.

The quetzal is Guatemala's national bird.

It has bright green feathers and a long tail. Jaguars, monkeys and tapirs live in the rainforest.

The resplendent quetzal, with glittering green feathers and a very long tail, is Guatemala's national bird, and the country's money is even named after it. A reserve for quetzals has been set aside in the mountains near Cobán.

The lowland forests have the richest wildlife: deer, monkeys, peccaries, tapirs, ocelots and jaguars, though many are becoming rare. Crocodiles, iguanas and many snakes live here too. The quetzal in the photo was photographed in Costa Rica.

Britannica notes that the richest animal life is in the lowland forests, though deer, monkeys, peccaries, tapirs, ocelots and jaguars are increasingly rare; reptiles include many snakes, crocodiles and iguanas. The rainforest birdlife is exuberant, led by the quetzal (Pharomachrus), the national bird, for which a reserve has been set aside in the sierras near Cobán; the currency, the quetzal, shares its name.

In the volcanic highlands, pine, fir and oak forest has largely been destroyed except on the highest slopes, and the Pacific plain has mostly been cleared. The quetzal photo is from Los Quetzales National Park, Costa Rica, and the other animal photos are from elsewhere.

About two in five people in Guatemala are Maya.

Many women wear colorful woven blouses called huipils. Cooks make corn tamales and stuffed peppers.

About two-fifths of Guatemalans are Maya, from groups such as the Mam, K'iche', Kaqchikel and Q'eqchi'. Most others are Ladinos, with both Spanish and Maya ancestors, and there are smaller Xinca and Garifuna communities. Spanish is official, and the 1996 peace agreement was translated into more than 20 Mayan languages.

In many villages, people still wear colorful handwoven clothes; each community has its own patterns. Food mixes Maya and Spanish traditions, from tamales of fresh corn to stuffed peppers. Independence Day, September 15, is celebrated with fireworks, parades and football.

Britannica divides the population culturally into Ladinos (mixed Hispanic-Maya, one-half to three-fifths) and Maya (about two-fifths), with smaller Xinca and Garífuna groups. The largest Maya groups are the Mam in the west, the K'iche' north and west of Lake Atitlán, the Kaqchikel from Atitlán to Guatemala City and the Q'eqchi' near Lake Izabal. Since the late 20th century there has been a strong push to promote Maya identity and languages.

Handwoven textiles and costumes unique to each community are the best-known crafts, and huipils are sold at fairs. Miguel Ángel Asturias won the 1967 Nobel Prize for Literature, and the K'iche' activist Rigoberta Menchú the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. Cultural institutions include the Ixchel Museum of Indian Attire in Guatemala City.