!!!Guatemala City, Guatemala

Photos by Dmitry Moiseenko and
Stanislav Sedov,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

28 May 2021

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

The AirPano team has already captured panoramas in Guatemala, a bright
country in Central America with an interesting history. We showed you
the pyramids of the Maya civilization in Tikal and the ancient city of
Antigua, so now let's make a virtual journey to the capital! It bears
the same name as the whole country, deriving from the word
Cuauhtemallan, which is Indian for "place of many trees". Spanish
conquistadors liked the way it looked and sounded, so they used it to
name the conquered territory.

Guatemala is not only the largest city in the country but also in
Central America. The area of almost 700 square kilometres is home to
around 2.5 million people while the architecture represents a harmonious
combination of antiquity and modernity.

[{Image src='01_Guatemala.jpg' caption='Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='462'}]

More than half of the residents, around 60%, profess Catholicism, so it
is not surprising that many of the sites refer to this religion. One of
the most famous sights of Guatemala is the baroque church of Cerrito del
Carmen. It has an absolutely special story: it was built in the 16th
century, a hundred years before the foundation of the city! The legend
tells that having visited the Holy Land, one of the pilgrims brought
here the icon of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that was given to him by the
Discalced Carmelites monks. This icon was supposed to spot the
construction site of a temple in its honour. The sign appeared in
Guatemala, and thus a small skete with a bell tower was erected at the
top of the hill; so later was the church. Both the church and this hill
were named Cerrito del Carmen, after the patron saint of the Order, the
Blessed Virgin Mary from Mount Carmel. In 1917 and 1976, this area
suffered from earthquakes, but each time the temple was carefully
restored.

[{Image src='02__Guatemala.jpg' caption='Iglesia del Cerrito del Carmen, Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='462'}]

Another important historical and spiritual sight of Guatemala is the
Metropolitan Cathedral or the Holy Church Cathedral Metropolitan
Basilica of Santiago de Guatemala. Its massive structure that combines
elements of Baroque and Classicism has survived many earthquakes: even
after the largest one, it required minor restoration. In front of the
building, there are 12 columns representing a memorial honouring the
people who were missed or killed during the internal armed conflict in
Guatemala in the second half of the previous century.

[{Image src='03_Guatemala.jpg' caption='Cathedral of Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='534'}]

The temple stands at Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Square), the
main square of the city and entire country. Nearby are the National
Palace and the National Library, a state flag has been erected to mark
the zero kilometre.

[{Image src='04_Guatemala.jpg' caption='National Palace, Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='534'}]

In Guatemala City, there are many high-rise buildings and only one of
them is higher than 100 meters: such architectural requirements were
established due to the proximity of the airport and the need to ensure
aerial safety. Our virtual tour will lead us to the districts lying
south of Constitution Square. The 69-meter-high Dubai Center, two
70-meter towers of the Géminis residential complex with round platforms
at the top and other skyscrapers rise here.

[{Image src='05_Guatemala.jpg' caption='Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='487'}]

In 1905, a relief map of Guatemala appeared in the city. Its covers
about 1,800 square meters; the scale is 1:10 000. At that time, there
were no modern computer and satellite technologies: the engineers who
created it were manually measuring the landscape for fifteen years. At
that time, this map was the most accurate geodetic project.

[{Image src='06_Guatemala.jpg' caption='Plaza de la Constitución, Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='462'}]

An equally iconic place in Guatemala City is the Centro Cultural Miguel
Ángel Asturias, which is also called the National Theater. It was
erected in 1978 and, as envisioned by the architect, it is supposed to
resemble the outlines of a seated jaguar. The country's largest cultural
centre, named after the Guatemalan writer and Nobel laureate Miguel
Ángel Asturias, includes a variety of educational and theatrical
platforms, as well as an outdoor amphitheatre.

The largest stadium in Guatemala has also found itself in the capital:
the National Stadium Doroteo Guamuch Flores (internationally known as
Mateo Flores) built to host the Central American and Caribbean Games in
1950. It is named after a distance runner who won the 1952 Boston
Marathon.

[{Image src='07_Guatemala.jpg' caption='Guatemala City\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='344'}]

Our virtual tour of Guatemala is coming to an end and we hope you were
able to see how diverse, beautiful and interesting this Central American
city is!

\\ \\
[13 panoramas of Guatemala City|Geography/America/Guatemala/Pictures/Guatemala_City]

[{SET customtitle='Guatemala City (AP)'}]












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