Zaculeu travel guide — Zaculeu tourism and travel information

Zaculeu travel guide

about Zaculeu

Zaculeu is a Pre-Columbian archeological site in the highlands of south western Guatemala, a short distance outside of the city of Huehuetenango. Zaculeu was the capital of the Mam kingdom of Maya civilization.

Zaculeu was first occupied in the 5th century, and the buildings from this era show the influence of Teotihuacan. The bulk of the site's construction dates from the Post-Classic era, from the 10th century until the early 16th century.

The site contains a number of temple-pyramids and governmental palaces around a series of plaza, and a court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame. The site was originally fortified with walls.

The city was attacked Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado in 1525, but the well defended city at first threw back the Spanish. Alvarado left his brother Gonzalo de Alvarado in charge of a siege, with 40 horsemen, 80 Spanish footsoldiers, and some 2,000 native allies from central Mexico. The city was defended by Mam king Caibil Balam commanding some 5,000 (the chronicles are not clear if this is the number of soldiers or the total population of Zaculeu).

After a siege of over a month the Mam were reduced to starvation and in October surrendered to the Spanish. After this Zaculeu it was abandoned, and the new city of Huehuetenango established some 5 km away.

In the late 1940s the United Fruit Company sponsored archeological excavations and restorations of the structures. The later included recoating a number of the buildings with white plaster, as it was known that many were originally, but this has seldom been redone in restoring Pre-Columbian buildings.

ceremonial center of Zaculeu, ballcourt in front center

The site is open for tourism visits and has a small museum.

Near cities to Zaculeu

• Santa Cruz del Quiche travel guide 33 km
• Chichicastenango travel guide 35 km
• Chimaltenango travel guide 46 km
• Antigua Guatemala travel guide 58 km
• Guatemala City travel guide 61 km
• Coban travel guide 71 km
• Huehuetenango travel guide 73 km
• Escuintla travel guide 87 km
• Mazatenango travel guide 94 km
• Jalapa travel guide 100 km

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