Guatemala City tour

Guatemala – the capital of the eponymous state and the largest city in the country – was founded in 1524 by the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado and originally bore the name of Santiago. It is an amazing city, full of quirks and its mysteries. The city has a zonal division, where the slums are combined with the fashionable mansions and prosperous buildings.

Colorful, noisy and chaotic, it sparkles with all the colors of the rainbow, resembling a motley patchwork. There are not much historical buildings of the colonial era in the city; many of them just were not able to hold out against repeated blows of elements (the city was destroyed by earthquakes in 1917-1918, when shaking was continuing for 6 months, and the earthquake in 1976). Guatemala City repairs this inadvertence with magnificent scenery.

There are the National Palace (now the Museum of the History of Guatemala), the majestic building of the cathedral with turquoise domes (1868), high flagpole with the flag of Guatemala, from which all distances are measured in the country, The National Library, the oldest in Central America, the University of San Carlos (1768), and the biggest market of handicrafts Mercado Central on the central square – Parque Central, the heart of the city and the country.

The southern part of the city, which was building in the second half of the twentieth century, is the business center of the capital now. Its main attraction is the Torre del Reformador, Guatemalan "Eiffel" tower, a gift of one of the American companies.

An archaeological site in Guatemala City is the Hill of Dead, once the largest city of the Maya, on the ruins of which a modern capital was built. The age of the ancient city is 4 thousand years.