Heritage · c. 12,000 BC
Obsidian arrowheads mark the first Guatemalans.
Did you know that the first evidence of people in Guatemala, obsidian arrowheads found at several sites across the country, dates back to around 12,000 BC, long before any Maya city was built.
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Science · c. 3500 BC
Ancient pollen reveals maize farming by 3500 BC.
Did you know that pollen preserved in lake sediments of Petén and the Pacific coast shows that people in Guatemala were already growing maize by around 3500 BC, the crop later sacred to the Maya.
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Heritage · c. 1000 BC
Nakbe built monuments by 1000 BC.
Did you know that Nakbe in the Mirador Basin of northern Petén is one of the earliest Maya cities, with monumental platforms and causeways raised around 1000 BC, centuries before Tikal grew important.
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Records · c. 300 BC
A Maya pyramid rivals Giza in bulk.
Did you know that La Danta at El Mirador, built mainly in the Late Preclassic period, is one of the largest pyramids in the world by volume, rising about 72 metres above the Petén rainforest floor.
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Science · c. 300–200 BC
Oldest Maya calendar date found at San Bartolo.
Did you know that a painted fragment from San Bartolo bearing the day sign "7 Deer", dated to between 300 and 200 BC, is the oldest known record of the Maya ritual calendar, announced by researchers in 2022.
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Culture · c. 100 BC
Shelter from the heat revealed ancient murals.
Did you know that the San Bartolo murals, discovered by accident in 2001 when an archaeologist sheltered from the heat in a looters' tunnel, show the Maya maize god and date to about 100 BC.
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Records · AD 292
Tikal's Stela 29 opens the Classic era.
Did you know that Stela 29 at Tikal carries a Long Count date equivalent to AD 292, the earliest such dated monument known from the Maya lowlands and the conventional start of the Classic period.
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Heritage · AD 378
A foreign warlord arrived as Tikal's king died.
Did you know that in January 378 a warlord called Siyaj K'ak', linked to the great Mexican city of Teotihuacan, arrived at Tikal on the same day its king Chak Tok Ich'aak died, installing a new dynasty.
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Society · AD 738
Tiny Quiriguá beheaded its overlord's king.
Did you know that in 738 the small city of Quiriguá captured and beheaded Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, king of its powerful overlord Copán, and then grew rich and independent on the Motagua River trade.
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Records · AD 741
Tikal's Temple IV towers 70 metres high.
Did you know that Temple IV at Tikal, completed around 741 for king Yik'in Chan K'awiil, stands about 70 metres tall and is one of the tallest pre-Columbian buildings in the Americas.
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Records · AD 771
Quiriguá raised the Maya world's biggest stela.
Did you know that Stela E at Quiriguá, dedicated in 771 for king K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, is about 10.6 metres tall and weighs some 65 tonnes, the largest free-standing stone monument raised by the Maya.
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Heritage · c. 1400
Q'umarkaj was the K'iche' power centre.
Did you know that the K'iche' Maya ruled the highlands from Q'umarkaj, also called Utatlán, near modern Santa Cruz del Quiché, which by the 15th century was the capital of the most powerful Postclassic kingdom in Guatemala.
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Society · c. 1470
Iximche was born from a Maya split.
Did you know that the Kaqchikel Maya, former allies of the K'iche', broke away around 1470 and founded their own capital at Iximche, which half a century later would become the first Spanish capital of Guatemala.
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Science · 1520
Disease reached the Maya before the Spaniards.
Did you know that a devastating epidemic, probably smallpox, swept through the Kaqchikel in 1520, years before any Spaniard arrived, as recorded in the Maya chronicle known as the Annals of the Cakchiquels.
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Myth or fact · 1524
The quetzal's red breast honours a fallen hero.
Did you know that according to legend, the quetzal bird gained its red breast from the blood of the K'iche' hero Tecun Uman, killed fighting Pedro de Alvarado near Quetzaltenango in 1524, although historians debate details of his story.
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Firsts · 25 July 1524
Guatemala's first Spanish capital was a Maya city.
Did you know that the first Spanish capital of Guatemala, Santiago de los Caballeros, was founded on 25 July 1524 beside the Kaqchikel city of Iximche, whose rulers had initially allied with the conquistadors.
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Society · 1537
The Land of War became True Peace.
Did you know that Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas won a deal to convert the unconquered region the Spaniards called Tezulutlán, "Land of War", by peaceful means, and it was later renamed Verapaz, "True Peace".
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Firsts · September 1541
The first woman governor ruled for days.
Did you know that Beatriz de la Cueva, widow of Pedro de Alvarado, became the first woman to govern a major Spanish province in the Americas in 1541, but drowned days later when a mudflow from Volcán de Agua destroyed the capital.
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Firsts · 1676
Central America's oldest university dates from 1676.
Did you know that the Universidad de San Carlos, founded by royal decree in 1676 in Santiago de los Caballeros (now Antigua), is Guatemala's only public university and the oldest university in Central America.
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Records · 13 March 1697
The last Maya kingdom fell in 1697.
Did you know that the Itza kingdom of Nojpetén, on an island in Lake Petén Itzá, was the last independent Maya kingdom and held out until Spanish forces stormed it on 13 March 1697, more than 170 years after the first conquest.
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Language · c. 1701
One friar's copy saved the Popol Vuh.
Did you know that the only surviving text of the Popol Vuh, the sacred K'iche' book of creation, exists because the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez copied and translated it at Chichicastenango around 1701.
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Economy · 18th century
Blue dye powered the colonial economy.
Did you know that indigo dye from the xiquilite plant was the leading export of colonial Guatemala and the wider Kingdom of Guatemala during the 18th century, shipped to textile makers across Europe.
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Geography · 29 July 1773
An earthquake created Antigua and Guatemala City.
Did you know that the Santa Marta earthquakes of 1773 so badly damaged Santiago de los Caballeros that the capital was moved to a new site, today's Guatemala City, while the ruins became the town now called Antigua.
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Society · 15 September 1821
Five nations share one independence day.
Did you know that Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica all celebrate independence on 15 September because they were declared independent together in a single Act of Independence signed in Guatemala City in 1821.
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Firsts · 1824
Central America ended slavery in 1824.
Did you know that the Federal Republic of Central America, governed from Guatemala City, abolished slavery in 1824, decades before the United States, Brazil or most of the Americas.
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Geography · 1838
Guatemala once lost its western highlands.
Did you know that western Guatemala briefly broke away in 1838 as the State of Los Altos, with Quetzaltenango as its capital, the sixth state of the Central American federation until Rafael Carrera reconquered it in 1840.
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Firsts · 21 March 1847
Guatemala proclaimed itself a republic in 1847.
Did you know that Rafael Carrera formally proclaimed Guatemala an independent republic on 21 March 1847, finally breaking with the defunct Central American federation, a date regarded as the founding of the Republic of Guatemala.
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Heritage · 1848
Tikal was officially rediscovered in 1848.
Did you know that the first official expedition to the ruins of Tikal was led in 1848 by Petén's commissioner Modesto Méndez and governor Ambrosio Tut, whose report included the first drawings of its monuments.
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Society · 1854
A former pig herder became president for life.
Did you know that Rafael Carrera, a former pig herder of humble origins with little schooling, was declared president for life of Guatemala in 1854 and ruled until his death in 1865.
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Geography · 30 April 1859
A road never built fuels the Belize dispute.
Did you know that the 1859 treaty with Britain, known as the Wyke–Aycinena Treaty, in which Guatemala accepted British Honduras's borders in exchange for a promised road, is the root of Guatemala's long territorial claim to Belize, now before the International Court of Justice.
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Society · 2 April 1885
Barrios died trying to reunite Central America.
Did you know that Liberal president Justo Rufino Barrios was killed at the Battle of Chalchuapa in El Salvador in 1885 while trying to reunite Central America by force under his own leadership.
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Culture · 1898–1920
A dictator built temples to Minerva.
Did you know that dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who ruled for 22 years from 1898 to 1920, built temples to the goddess Minerva across Guatemala and inspired Miguel Ángel Asturias's novel El Señor Presidente.
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Records · 1905
A walkable map of the whole country.
Did you know that the Mapa en Relieve in Guatemala City, built in 1905 by engineer Francisco Vela, is a giant open-air relief map of the whole country covering about 1,800 square metres with exaggerated mountains.
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Economy · 1925
Guatemala's money is named after a bird.
Did you know that Guatemala's currency, the quetzal, introduced in 1925 under President José María Orellana, is named after the national bird, which the Maya prized for feathers that were used as a form of currency.
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Society · 1945
A schoolteacher won 85 percent of the vote.
Did you know that schoolteacher and philosopher Juan José Arévalo won the 1944 election with about 85 percent of the vote and in 1945 became the first democratically elected president of the Ten Years of Spring.
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Economy · 17 June 1952
Land reform challenged United Fruit.
Did you know that Decree 900, the 1952 agrarian reform of Jacobo Árbenz, redistributed uncultivated land to about 500,000 people, including large unused holdings of the United Fruit Company, the country's biggest landowner.
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Society · June 1954
A radio war toppled Guatemala's president.
Did you know that the CIA operation that overthrew President Jacobo Árbenz in June 1954, code-named PBSuccess, relied heavily on fake radio broadcasts and psychological warfare rather than a large invasion force.
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Culture · 1954
Che Guevara's radicalisation began in Guatemala.
Did you know that a young Argentine doctor, Ernesto Guevara, was living in Guatemala City during the 1954 coup, and the experience helped turn him into the revolutionary later known worldwide as Che.
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Culture · 1967
Asturias won Guatemala's first Nobel Prize.
Did you know that Miguel Ángel Asturias, whose novels drew on Maya myths and his country's dictatorships, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967, the first Guatemalan to receive any Nobel Prize.
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Geography · 4 February 1976
One quake left a million homeless.
Did you know that the magnitude 7.5 earthquake of 4 February 1976 on the Motagua Fault killed about 23,000 people and left more than a million homeless, roughly a sixth of Guatemala's population.
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Culture · 1977
Tikal played a rebel base in Star Wars.
Did you know that the ancient temples of Tikal rising above the jungle appear in the 1977 film Star Wars as the Rebel base on the moon Yavin 4, filmed from the top of Temple IV.
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Society · 31 January 1980
An embassy fire broke ties with Spain.
Did you know that the burning of the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City on 31 January 1980 killed 37 people, including Vicente Menchú, father of Rigoberta Menchú, and led Spain to break diplomatic relations.
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Firsts · 1992
A K'iche' woman became a Nobel laureate.
Did you know that K'iche' activist Rigoberta Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, aged 33, becoming the first Indigenous woman to receive it, in the year marking five centuries since Columbus reached the Americas.
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Records · 29 December 1996
Peace ended a 36-year war.
Did you know that the peace accords signed on 29 December 1996 ended a 36-year civil war, one of the longest in Latin America, in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.
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Society · 26 April 1998
A bishop was killed after his report.
Did you know that Bishop Juan Gerardi was beaten to death in 1998 just two days after presenting the church report Guatemala: Never Again, which blamed the army for most wartime atrocities.
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Firsts · 10 May 2013
A national court convicted an ex-ruler of genocide.
Did you know that former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide against the Ixil Maya in 2013, the first time a former head of state was found guilty of genocide by a court in his own country.
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Society · 2–3 September 2015
A sitting president resigned and was jailed.
Did you know that President Otto Pérez Molina resigned in September 2015 and was jailed the next day over the La Línea customs fraud uncovered by the UN-backed anti-corruption commission CICIG.
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Nature · 3 June 2018
Fuego's 2018 eruption buried whole villages.
Did you know that the eruption of Volcán de Fuego on 3 June 2018 sent pyroclastic flows into villages such as San Miguel Los Lotes, killing at least 190 people, with hundreds more listed as missing.
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Society · 15 January 2024
Arévalo's son took office after midnight.
Did you know that Bernardo Arévalo, son of the first Spring president Juan José Arévalo, was sworn in shortly after midnight on 15 January 2024, about nine hours late, after months of attempts to block his inauguration.
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Society · October 2025
Twenty gang members vanished from one prison.
Did you know that authorities revealed in October 2025 that 20 high-risk members of the Barrio 18 gang had escaped from the Fraijanes II prison near Guatemala City, prompting border alerts and the firing of prison chiefs.
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Society · 17 May 2026
Guatemala finally changed attorneys general in 2026.
Did you know that Attorney General Consuelo Porras, sanctioned by about 40 countries for obstructing anti-corruption work, left office on 17 May 2026 and was replaced by Gabriel García Luna, chosen by President Arévalo.
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Nature · Timeless
The quetzal is said to die in cages.
Did you know that the resplendent quetzal, Guatemala's national bird, appears on its flag and coat of arms, and a popular belief holds that it dies in captivity, though some zoos have kept it alive.
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Geography · Timeless
Thirty-seven volcanoes rise across Guatemala.
Did you know that Guatemala has 37 volcanoes, including Fuego, Pacaya and Santiaguito, which are among the most active in Central America and often erupt in view of Antigua and Guatemala City.
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Records · Timeless
Huxley found Atitlán almost too beautiful.
Did you know that Lake Atitlán, a volcanic caldera ringed by three volcanoes and Maya towns, is the deepest lake in Central America at about 340 metres, and Aldous Huxley called it too much of a good thing.
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Language · Timeless
Over 20 Mayan languages are spoken here.
Did you know that Guatemala officially recognises 21 Mayan languages, such as K'iche', Q'eqchi' and Kaqchikel, alongside Xinca and Garifuna, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the Americas.
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Economy · Timeless
Chewing gum began as Petén tree sap.
Did you know that the original chewing gum was made from chicle, a natural latex tapped from sapodilla trees in the forests of Petén, and chicleros there helped uncover many forgotten Maya ruins.
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Economy · Timeless
Guatemala exports more cardamom than India.
Did you know that Guatemala, where German coffee planters introduced cardamom in the early 20th century, is the world's largest exporter of the spice, most of it grown by Q'eqchi' farmers in Alta Verapaz and sold to the Middle East.
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Heritage · Timeless
All Maya jade came from one valley.
Did you know that the Motagua River valley in eastern Guatemala is the only known source of the jadeite used by the Olmec and the Maya, and its ancient quarries were relocated by researchers only in the late 20th century.
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Culture · Timeless
Maya used cacao beans as money.
Did you know that the Maya of Guatemala drank cacao as a frothy, often spicy beverage long before Europeans ever tasted chocolate, and they also used cacao beans as money in markets.
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Culture · Timeless
The marimba is a national symbol.
Did you know that the marimba, a wooden xylophone often played by several musicians at once on a single instrument, was declared Guatemala's national instrument and is a central symbol of the country's culture.
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Culture · Timeless
Giant kites carry messages to the dead.
Did you know that every 1 November in Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez, villagers fly giant round kites made of tissue paper and bamboo, some over ten metres wide, to send messages to the dead.
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Culture · Timeless
Pepián is a protected national dish.
Did you know that pepián, a rich stew of meat thickened with toasted seeds, chilies and spices that blends Maya and Spanish cooking, was declared part of Guatemala's intangible cultural heritage in 2007.
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Nature · Timeless
A sacred tree connects Maya worlds.
Did you know that the ceiba, Guatemala's national tree, was sacred to the ancient Maya, who believed a giant cosmic ceiba linked the underworld, the earth and the heavens, and many towns still keep one in the main square.
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Nature · Timeless
A white orchid is the national flower.
Did you know that Guatemala's national flower is the Monja Blanca, or White Nun, a rare white orchid from the cloud forests of Alta Verapaz that was declared a national symbol in 1934.
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Nature · Timeless
A river runs under turquoise pools.
Did you know that at Semuc Champey the Cahabón River vanishes beneath a 300-metre natural limestone bridge, on top of which sits a staircase of turquoise pools in the jungle of Alta Verapaz.
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Geography · Timeless
Central America's highest peak is Guatemalan.
Did you know that Volcán Tajumulco in the department of San Marcos rises 4,203 metres above sea level, making it the highest mountain in all of Central America.
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