Departments of Guatemala in the context of "San Miguel Chicaj"

Petén (from the Itz'a, Noj Petén, 'Great Island') is a department of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest by area – at 35,854 km (13,843 sq mi) it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores. The population at the mid-2018 official estimate was 595,548.

Sololá is a department in the west of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Sololá. Lake Atitlan is a key feature surrounded by a number of the municipalities.

Huehuetenango (Spanish pronunciation: [w̝e.we.t̪eˈnãŋ.ɡo]) is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. It is located in the western highlands and shares the borders with the Mexican state of Chiapas in the north and west; with El Quiché in the east, and Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango and San Marcos in the south. The capital is the city of Huehuetenango.

Huehuetenango's ethnic composition is one of the most diverse in Guatemala. While the Mam are predominant in the department, other Maya groups are the Q'anjob'al, Chuj, Jakaltek, Tektik, Awakatek, Chalchitek, Akatek and K'iche'. Each of these nine Maya ethnic groups speaks its own language.

San Marcos is a department in southwestern Guatemala, on the Pacific Ocean and along the western Guatemala-Mexico border.

The department's capital is the city of San Marcos.

Qʼeqchiʼ (/qʼeqt͡ʃiʔ/) (Kʼekchiʼ in the former orthography, or simply Kekchi in many English-language contexts, such as in Belize) are a Maya people of Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Their Indigenous language is the Qʼeqchiʼ language.

Before the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in the 1520s, Qʼeqchiʼ settlements were concentrated in what are now the departments of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. Over the course of the succeeding centuries a series of land displacements, resettlements, persecutions and migrations resulted in a wider dispersal of Qʼeqchiʼ communities into other regions of Guatemala (Izabal, Petén, El Quiché), southern Belize (Toledo District), and smaller numbers in southern Mexico (Chiapas, Campeche). While most notably present in northern Alta Verapaz and southern Petén, contemporary Qʼeqchiʼ language-speakers are the most widely spread geographically of all Maya peoples in Guatemala.

Flores is the capital of the Petén Department, Guatemala's landlocked, northernmost department. The population was 45,560 in 2023.

Flores is the seat of the municipality of Flores (population 22,600).

The Río Negro massacres were a series of killings of villagers by the government of Guatemala between 1980 and 1982.

In 1978, in the face of civil war, the Guatemalan government proceeded with its economic development program, including the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam. Financed in large part by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Chixoy Dam was built in Rabinal, a region of the department of Baja Verapaz historically populated by the Maya Achi. To complete construction, the government undertook voluntary and forcible relocations of dam-affected communities from the fertile agricultural valleys to the much harsher surrounding highlands. When hundreds of residents refused to relocate, or returned after finding the conditions of resettlement villages were not what the government had promised, these men, women, and children were kidnapped, raped, and massacred by paramilitary and military officials. More than 440 Maya Achi were killed in the village of Río Negro alone. The string of extrajudicial killings that claimed up to 5,000 lives between 1980 and 1982 became known as the Río Negro massacres. The government officially declared the acts to be counterinsurgency activities – although local church workers, journalists and the survivors of Rio Negro deny that the town ever saw any organized guerrilla activity.

Sololá is a city in Guatemala. It is the capital of the department of Sololá and the administrative seat of Sololá municipality. It is located close to Lake Atitlán.

The name is a Hispanicized form of its pre-Columbian name, one spelling variant of which is Tz'olojya. The urban center has about 14,000 people, but the municipality also includes four village communities — Los Encuentros, El Tablón, San Jorge la Laguna, and Argueta — as well as 59 smaller rural communities.

The departments of the Republic of Guatemala are divided into 340 municipalities (Spanish: municipios). The municipalities are listed below, by department. Department capitals are written in bold.

Guatemala Department is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital is Guatemala City, which also serves as the national capital. The department consists of Guatemala City, its suburbs and other municipalities.

The department covers a surface area of 2,126 square kilometres (821 sq mi), and had a population of 3,015,081 at the 2018 census.

Quetzaltenango is a department in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. The department is divided up into 24 municipalities. The inhabitants include Spanish-speaking Ladinos and the Kʼicheʼ and Mam Maya groups, both with their own Maya language. The department consists of mountainous terrain, with its principal river being the Samalá River. the department is seismically active, suffering from both earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Prior to the Spanish conquest the territory included in the modern department formed a part of the Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj. The kingdom was defeated by the Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado in a number of decisive battles fought near the city of Quetzaltenango, then known as Xelaju. In the 19th century the territory of the modern department was included in the short-lived Central American state of Los Altos. The department was created by decree in 1845, five years after the fledgling state was crushed by Rafael Carrera.

Sacul is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the upper drainage of the Mopan River, in the Petén department of Guatemala. The city occupied an important trade route through the Maya Mountains. The main period of occupation dates to the Late Classic Period. In the late 8th century AD through to the early 9th century, Sacul was one of the few kingdoms in the southeastern Petén region to use its own Emblem Glyph, together with Ixtutz and Ucanal.

In AD 779 Sacul went to war against Ixkun and lost, but stelae at both cities record a visit to Ixkun by king Ch'iyel of Sacul just 11 years later and the two cities appear to have formed a military alliance at that time.

Uaxactun (pronounced [waʃakˈtun]) is an ancient sacred place of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some 12 miles (19 km) north of the major center of Tikal. The name is sometimes spelled as Waxaktun.

Cival is an archaeological site in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands, which was formerly a major city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the present-day Department of Petén, Guatemala.

The site flourished from about the 6th century B.C. through the 1st century C.E., during the Preclassic Period (see: Mesoamerican chronology). It may have had a peak population of some 10,000 people.

17°45′18″N 89°55′14″W / 17.75500°N 89.92056°W / 17.75500; -89.92056

El Mirador (which translates as 'The Lookout', 'The Viewpoint', or 'The Belvedere') is a large pre-Columbian Middle and Late Preclassic (1000 BC – 250 AD) Maya settlement, located in the north of the modern department of El Petén, Guatemala. It is part of the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin of northern Guatemala. El Mirador is considered to be the most important complex of ancient cities from the Preclassic period. It features causeways and pyramids, among which the pyramid of La Danta stands out, one of the tallest and most voluminous in the world. The site is estimated to comprise some 800 cities, and the location of La Danta was the epicenter of trade, religious ceremonies, and the royal residence of rulers. Furthermore, the city was interconnected with others via 13 causeways, representing its power over the other Mayan cities in the region. El Mirador has white roads measuring 40 meters wide and between 2 and 5 meters high, forming what researchers consider the world's first highway system or superhighway.

Santa Cruz del Quiché is a city, with a population of 78,279 (2018 census), in Guatemala. It serves as the capital of the El Quiché department and the municipal seat of Santa Cruz del Quiché municipality. The city is located at 15°02′N 91°09′W / 15.03°N 91.15°W / 15.03; -91.15, at an elevation of 2,021 m (6,631 feet) above sea level. It has an airport, Quiché Airport, located just south of the city.

Totonicapán is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Totonicapán.