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Guatemala City
Guatemala's capital, the largest city in Central America
Guatemala City sits in a highland valley ringed by volcanoes, the sprawling capital of Guatemala and the largest urban center in Central America. More than three million people live in its metropolitan area, spread across a high plateau and the ravines that slice through it, in a city that became the seat of government only after earthquakes destroyed its predecessor. It is the political, commercial, and cultural hub of the region, a place where Maya heritage, Spanish colonial legacy, and rapid modern growth intersect.
The city lies at roughly 1,500 meters in the Valle de la Ermita, hemmed in by the volcanoes Pacaya, Fuego, and Agua, the first two of which remain active and occasionally dust the city with ash. Deep barrancas, or ravines, carve through the urban area, constraining where it can spread and complicating its infrastructure. The highland setting gives the city a mild, spring-like climate year round despite its tropical latitude. The region sits in a seismically violent zone where the Caribbean and North American plates grind together, and earthquakes have repeatedly devastated Guatemalan capitals.
The Spanish moved the colonial capital to this site in 1776 after the great earthquake of 1773 wrecked Antigua Guatemala, the elegant city to the west that they abandoned. The new capital grew slowly through the colonial and early republican eras, then expanded rapidly in the twentieth century as people moved from the countryside. A devastating earthquake in 1976 killed tens of thousands across the country. Today Guatemala City is the dominant economic center of Central America, a fast-growing metropolis grappling with inequality even as it anchors the region's commerce.