Guatemala City Facts

Guatemala's first street nomenclature was devised in 1855 when the Conservative Government decreed the use of proper names, such as Calle del Calvario, Calle de los Olvidos, or Calle de la Merced. The system was descriptive and easy to remember, but rapid growth of the city led to its replacement by a numbering method first proposed by the engineer Raúl Aguilar Batres in 1877. Despite its Byzantine complexity, this system is still used today. Streets from north to south are called "Avenida" and those from east to west are called "Calle". Each address has three numbers-"1 Avenida 5-25" for example-to indicate the street number and the approximate distance, in meters, from the nearest cross street....

Guatemala City was founded as the country's third capital in 1776, following the destruction of two earlier attempts by natural disasters -- earthquakes and mudslides. Christened with the unwieldy name of La Nueva Guatemala de La Asunción de la Valle de la Ermita by Spain's King Charles III, it's most commonly known by its simple abbreviation, Guate. Long before the Spaniards moved their capital here, this was the site of the pre-Classic Maya city of Kaminaljuyú, whose ruins you can still visit. The city is set on a broad plateau at an elevation of 1,468m (4,897...