Founded 1543 Guatemala City was Guatemala's capital for over 200 years. Guatemala was originally Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, St James of the noblemen of Guatemala. 1524 Pedro de Alvarado established this first government seat near Calchiquel's capital Iximche. After a 1527 Indian revolt it was moved to the lush Almolonga Valley. The first Ciudad Vieja's site was the unstable lower slope of Agua Volcano, a few miles south of today's Antigua, now San Miguel Escobar. 1541 a giant mudslide wiped out the new capital after a volcanic eruption loosened a natural dam below Agua's summit. The facade of the 2nd Ciudad Vieja's 1700s Franciscan church, built by Diego de Porres, is the only colonial period structure remaining. The 3rd capital was rebuilt in the center of Almolonga Valley, presumably safer though still shadowed by 12,356 ft Agua and its taller volcanic neighbors Acantenango 13,042 feet and Fuego 12346 feet. Despite occasional epidemics, temblors, droughts and eruptions the new Antigua grew and prospered, envied for its gracious living and talented artisans. Construction of Antigua's streets and avenues began at Plaza Real, moving out to the 4 cardinal directions, its symmetrical design resembling a chessboard. Antigua still has excellent examples of centuries-old colonial architecture.
NEW GUATEMALA
Called Guate, Guatemala and La Capital by locals, Nueva Guatemala de Ascunsion was founded during a Jan 2, 1776 Mass and placed under the Virgin's patronage. Spain's original colonial capitol Santiago, officially La Antigua Guatemala Antigua, leveled by earthquakes, was abandoned. Colonial officials laid out New Guatemala de Ascunsion in the fertile Ermita Valley, hoping surrounding ravines would absorb earthquake shocks and protect the city from destruction befalling previous capitals. Adopting traditional colonial town layouts they retained a neoclassic architectural style breaking with tradition. After the 1871 Revolution French architecture dominated, largely erased by earthquakes. Earthquakes destroyed the city in 1830, Dec 25, 1917 and Jan 24, 1918. No colonial buildings remain except a few sturdy churches. Guatemala's revolution and counterrevolution cycles began centuries before Spain arrived. Guatemala's city-states had some of the greatest achievements in mathematics, astronomy and architecture. Pedro de Alvarado, born in Spain in 1485, the first generation in 600 years not having to fight Muslim invaders, brought his men to the New World, reached Guatemala's highlands in 1524 and quickly allied with competing Indian tribes, conquering Guatemala and El Salvador in less than 6 years.
Buried Mayan palace may revise history
In a remote Guatemalan jungle among remains of little-known Cancun (place of serpents) archaeologists uncovered one of the largest and most splendid palaces ever discovered. Dating from the 700s and still mostly intact, its 170 high-ceiling rooms were built around 11 courtyards and spread over an area larger than 2 football fields. In size and preservation Cancun's palace rivaled buildings at the central acropolis in Tikal, one of Mayan power's grandest seats in Guatemala. Earlier expeditions overlooked or underestimated the size and grandeur of the palace and the city around it, a prosperous center of commerce and crafts on the Pasión River. Mayan civilization was at the peak of its power in Central America and Mexico 250 - 900, the classic period. King Tah ak Chaan, who built the palace, ruled Cancun 740 - 790.
Focus of Mayan politics and state ceremony shifted from plaza to palace. Building art and architecture reflects changing relationships of powerful rulers, nobles and allies. There's no evidence Cancun warred with neighbors. Lack of pyramids was the main reason archaeologists passed by the ruins and didn't investigate. These discoveries may cause scholars to reconsider Mayan civilization. Cancun prospered for centuries without war or religion as Mayan kings' power sources, particularly toward the end of their dominance. Unlike other Mayan cities Cancuén used its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian and other valuable commodities, to become a commercial power throughout the lowlands. Cancun was larger, richer and more powerful than expected, its rulers focusing on commerce. Cancun homes disclose a wealthy middle class. Workshops produced elite goods for trade. Jade is everywhere. One 35-pound stone was for ornaments. Artisans were buried with fine ceramic figurines with beautiful headdresses. Other excavations turned up large amounts of pyrite, fool's gold, used in thin sheets for mirrors, prized possessions of the elite.
All this might not be uncovered if its discoverer Demarest did not literally fall into it. After 10 years excavating Dos Pilas and other northern Guatemala sites and finding ample evidence of highly militaristic city-state Petexbatún, Demarest visited Cancun following a lead. Team members found records of the marriage of a Dos Pilas prince and a Cancuén princess who came to Dos Pilas to live in her own small palace, bringing her own artisans. Stonework on her palace is like Cancun's, far superior to anything in the Petexbatún region. To untrained eyes the palace looks like a jungle-covered hill. Walking along the ruin's highest level, Demarest fell into vegetation filling a courtyard. The hill was a 3-story building whose roof he walked on. Test holes estimate its dimensions. Its solid limestone walls enclose a densely packed labyrinth of rooms with 20-foot-high corbel-arched ceilings. The region, now free of civil war, is still lawlessly without government presence. Demarest plans to revise his book.