Huehuetenango () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and municipality in the

highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

s of western

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Highway before the Mexican border at La Mesilla. Its primary export is coffee.

Overview

Huehuetenango (originally called ''Xinabajul'' in the Mam language) was already a Maya settlement before the Spanish conquest of the fortified city of Zaculeu, which was the Pre-Columbian capital of the Mam kingdom situated just a few kilometers from Xinabahul. 'Huehuetenango' means ''place of the ancients (or ancestors)'' in

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

, which is the name Gonzalo de Alvarado adopted from his Nahua allies when Zaculeu and Xinabahul were conquered. Many people of

Mam Mam or MAM may refer to: Places * An Mám or Maum, a settlement in Ireland * General Servando Canales International Airport in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico (IATA Code: MAM) * Isle of Mam, a phantom island * Mam Tor, a hill near Castleton in t ...

descent still live in and around Huehuetenango, and the nearby ruins of Zaculeu have become a tourist attraction. The ruins are markedly distinct from other Maya archeological sites; the original unearthed stones, comprising only a small portion of the original structures, were coated with plaster during restoration works carried out in the 1940s. There is also a small museum at Zaculeu that includes statues and small artifacts found on the site.

Huehuetenango Airport Huehuetenango Airport is an airport serving the city of Huehuetenango, the capital of Huehuetenango Department, Guatemala. The airport is in the southwestern section of the city, which is in a high elevation basin. There is rising terrain north ...

is within the city and has a paved runway and a small terminal building. There are currently no scheduled airline flights.

Climate

The city has a subtropical highland climate ( Köppen: ''Cwb''), with warm summers and mild winters.

Sports

The city currently boasts one Guatemalan top level football side Xinabajul in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala.

Notable people

Former president Efraín Ríos Montt was born in Huehuetenango (in 1926). His younger brother,

Mario Enrique Ríos Montt Mario Enrique Ríos Montt, Congregation of the Mission, C.M. (born March 17, 1932 in Huehuetenango, Guatemala) is an emeritus auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala, public figure and human rights activist. He is the brothe ...

the emeritus auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala in 1932.

Notes

{{Authority control Municipalities of the Huehuetenango Department Populated places established in 1524