Santa Cruz del Quiché

Santa Cruz del Quiché
Municipality
Santa Cruz del Quiché, 2007
Santa Cruz del Quiché Location in Guatemala
Coordinates: 15°1′48″N 91°9′0″W
Kintra	Guatemala
Depairtment	El Quiché
Municipality	Santa Cruz del Quiché
Govrenment
• Teep	Municipal
Area
• Municipality	311 km2 (120 sq mi)
Elevation	2021 m (6,631 ft)
Highest elevation	2500 m (8,200 ft)
Lowest elevation	1500 m (4,900 ft)
Population  (Census 2002)
• Municipality	62,369
• Urban	20,870
• Ethnicities	K'iche' Ladino
• Releegions	Roman Catholicism Evangelicalism Maya
Website	http://www.inforpressca.com/quiche/

Santa Cruz del Quiché is a ceety in Guatemala. It serves as the caipital o El Quiché depairtment an the municipal seat o Santa Cruz del Quiché municipality.

The ceety is locatit at 15.03°N 91.15°W / 15.03; -91.15, at an elevation o 2,021 m (6,631 feet) abuin sea level. The urban population wis aboot 21,000 fowk in 2003.

History

Santa Cruz del Quiché wis foondit bi Pedro de Alvarado, a companion an seicont in-command o conquistador Hernán Cortés, efter he burned doun the nearbi Maya caipital ceety o Q'umarkaj (or Utatlán, in the Nahuatl leid). The auldest biggins, includin a lairge cathedral an clock touer in the central plaza, wur constructit oot o the stanes o the Q'umarkaj ruins bi the Dominicans. Some think it likely that it wis in Santa Cruz where a group o anonymous K'iche' nobles o the Nim Ch'okoj class transcribit the Popol Vuh, the sacred text o the Maya.

In Santa Cruz, the umwhile rulers o Q'umarkaj wur reducit tae the status o peasant. As the livin conditions wur so pitiful in the ceety, the toun o Chichicastenango, aboot 20 mile tae the sooth o Santa Cruz, began tae swell wi the immigration o displacit Mayas an suin passed up Santa Cruz in baith size an importance.

Santa Cruz del Quiché haes an airport.

Freemit airtins

• Santa Cruz del Quiché - Sistema de Información Municipal
• INE - XI Censo Nacional de Poblacion y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002) Archived 2008-10-20 at the Wayback Machine