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Information about Guatemala City

Guatemala City
La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción
Enlarge picture
National Palace of Culture
National Palace of Culture
Nickname: Guate
Coordinates:
Country Guatemala
Department Guatemala
Municipality Guatemala
Established 1773
Government
 - Mayor Álvaro Arzú
Area
 - City 692 km  (0 sq mi)
 - Land 1905 km (0 sq mi)
Elevation 1500  m (0 ft)
Population (2002)
 - City 942,348


Guatemala City (in full, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción; locally known as Guatemala or Guate) is the capital and largest city of the nation of Guatemala. It is also the capital city of the local Guatemala Department. It is also the largest city in Central America.

As of the 2002 census, the city had a population of 942,348.[1] The city is located at , in a mountain valley in the south central part of the country.

History

Within the confines of modern Guatemala City is the ancient Maya city of Kaminaljuyu. Kaminaljuyu dates back some 9,000 years and is one of the Americas' most notable archaeological sites. The center of Kaminaljuyu was located a short distance from the oldest part of Guatemala City. However, in the late 20th century, the city grew around the ruins, and, in some cases, over some of the outlying ruins before they were protected. Many of the several hundred temple mounds have been built over with freeways, shopping centers, commerce, luxury hotels and residential areas. The central ceremonial center of Kaminaljuyu was protected by the Guatemalan government and is now a park within the city.

In Spanish colonial times, Guatemala City was a small town. It had a monastery called 'El Carmen', founded in 1629. The capital of Spanish colonial Central America was moved here after an earthquake destroyed the old capital, Antigua Guatemala, in 1775. King Charles III of Spain authorized the moving of the capital on September 27, 1775. This resulted in a great expansion of the city.

The city was the scene of the declaration of independence of Central America from Spain, and became in 1821 the capital of the United Provinces of Central America.

Features

Enlarge picture
National Post Office Building
Guatemala City is the economic, governmental and cultural capital of the Republic, and it functions as the main port of entry into the country, with the country's largest international airport, La Aurora International Airport. In addition to a wide variety of restaurants, hotels and shops, the city has a wide variety of art galleries and museums (including some fine collections of Pre-Columbian art) and continually offers an increasing amount of cultural activities. There are 10 universities, Universidad Mariano Gálvez, Universidad Panamericana, Universidad Mesoamericana, Universidad Rafael Landivar, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Universidad del Valle, Universidad del Istmo, Universidad Galileo, Universidad Rural and Universidad de San Carlos, the mother only public one and third oldest university in the New World.

Guatemala City does not have an efficient public transportation service, despite the many proposals and projects for the construction of a mass transit system. Although the construction of freeways and underpasses by the municipal government, as well as the establishment of the Department of Metropolitan Transit Police, PMT, has helped traffic flow in the city, the Guatemalan metropolitan area faces a growing transportation problem. However, a new project called Transmetro, consisting of special-purpose lanes for high-capacity buses, began operating in 2007 and aims to improve traffic flow in the city.

Guatemala City is subdivided into 25 zones (although zones 20, 22, and 23 don't exist), each one with its own streets and avenues, making it very easy to find addresses in the city. However, the city has grown so fast in the past years that it has already absorbed most of the neighboring towns, including Villa Nueva, Santa Catarina Pinula, Mixco, and the suburban area of Carretera a El Salvador.

Zone One is the Historic Center (Centro Histórico), lying in the very heart of the city, the location of many important buildings including the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Congress, and the Casa Presidencial (Presidential House).

The city has been host to several sports events. In 1950 it hosted the VI Central American and Caribbean Games, and in 2000 the Futsal World Cup.

The city is served by La Aurora International Airport.

Zona Viva (Live Zone)

Zone Ten or the Zona Viva is among the most popular areas for Pop Culture and Shopping and entertainment. Zone ten is where most of the hotels, restaurants, bars, discotheques, and other entertainment places in the city are located. Also, many of the embassies are located in Zone Ten, which is very safe and well-patrolled.

Transportation

Guatemala La Aurora International Airport lies in the southern part of the city and is the main gateway to the country. Urban public transportation is provided solely by bus. A new bus system called transmetro is currently being built up, where buses use exclusive lanes with fix bus stops.

Gallery


Volcanoes surrounding Guatemala City

John Paul II monument

Zona Viva

Air View of Guatemala City

Guatemala City Valley

Palace Nacional de la Cultura

Sister Cities

References

External links

In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government.
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Motto
Unofficial: "El País de la Eterna Primavera" 
"Land of Eternal Spring"
Official: "Libre Crezca Fecundo"
"Grow Free and Fertile"
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Guatemala
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Guatemala

This article is part of the series:
Politics of Guatemala

  • President
  • scar Berger
  • Vice President
  • Eduardo Stein
  • Congress of the Republic

..... Click the link for more information.
Guatemala is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital is Guatemala City, which also serves as the national capital.

The department covers a surface area of 2,126 km², and had a population of 2,541,581 at the 2002 census.
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
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885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen (b. March 14, 1946, in Guatemala City) was President of Guatemala from January 14, 1996 until January 14, 2000. He has been elected Mayor of Guatemala City on four occasions: in 1982, but was prevented from assuming office because of a coup d'état; in
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Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

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Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to:
  • 1,000,000 m²
  • 100 ha (hectare)
Conversely:
  • 1 m² = 0.

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square mile is an imperial and US unit of area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. It should not be confused with the archaic miles square, which refers to the number of miles on each side squared.
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elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height
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1 metre =
SI units
1000 mm 0 cm
US customary / Imperial units
0 ft 0 in
The metre or meter[1](symbol: m) is the fundamental unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
..... Click the link for more information.
1 foot =
SI units
0 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
0 yd 0 in
A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′
..... Click the link for more information.
20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
1999 2000 2001 - 2002 - 2003 2004 2005

2002 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
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capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative sense of "capital") is the center of government.
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Motto
Unofficial: "El País de la Eterna Primavera" 
"Land of Eternal Spring"
Official: "Libre Crezca Fecundo"
"Grow Free and Fertile"
Anthem
Himno Nacional de Guatemala
..... Click the link for more information.
Guatemala is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital is Guatemala City, which also serves as the national capital.

The department covers a surface area of 2,126 km², and had a population of 2,541,581 at the 2002 census.
..... Click the link for more information.


Central America (Spanish: Centroamérica or América Central) is a central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as the southern portion of North America, which connects with South America on the southeast, or a region of
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20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
1970s  1980s  1990s  - 2000s -  2010s  2020s  2030s
1999 2000 2001 - 2002 - 2003 2004 2005

2002 by topic:
News by month
Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun
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twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. Some historians consider the era from about 1914 to 1991 to be the Short Twentieth Century.
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
The Captaincy General of Guatemala (Spanish: Capitanía General de Guatemala), also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala (Spanish: Reino de Guatemala), was an administrative division in Spanish America which covered much of Central America, including what are
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State Party
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Motto
"Plus Ultra"   (Latin)
"Further Beyond"
Anthem
"Marcha Real" 1
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September 27 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 489 - Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.

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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1790s  1800s  1810s  - 1820s -  1830s  1840s  1850s
1818 1819 1820 - 1821 - 1822 1823 1824

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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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¹ Moved to San Salvador in 1834.

The Federal Republic of Central America, also known as the United Provinces of Central America, was a short-lived Latin American state in Central America.
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected expansion of an existing airport. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the airport expansion approaches, and as
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The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents.
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