The largest city in Central America, Guatemala City is the capital of the Republic if Guatemala. The city is also the country’s economic, social and cultural capital. Do you know that there is a parliamentary body for the Central American states called ‘the Central American Parliament’? Aso known as PARLACEN, the institution is officially located in Guatemala City. The city is home to the regional headquarters of the Organization of American States too.
The city’s name originates from the Nahuatl language of an American Indian tribe. Although experts disagree over the source, some hold that the original name was ‘Quauhtemallan’ meaning ‘land of trees’, while some others believe that it is derived from Guhatezmalha, meaning ‘mountain of vomiting water’. There was a series of earthquakes that shook the city in 1917. The tremors and quakes that started in the mid November lasted more than six weeks. The city was destroyed completely. The earthquakes recurred in 1976, taking more than 23,000 lives and injuring around 76,000 people.
There are several important museums and artistic, commercial, vocational and military institutions in the city. The concrete relief map of the country in Minerva Park, the archaeological and historical museums, the colonial aqueduct, the central market and the Olympic City, built for the Central American Olympic Games of 1950 are some of the monuments of tourist interest.
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