Qʼumarkaj

Qumarkaj (Kiche: [qumarka]) (sometimes rendered as Gumarkaaj, Gumarcaj, Cumarcaj or Kumarcaaj) is an archaeological site in the southwest of the El Quiché department of Guatemala. Qumarkaj is also known as Utatlán, the Nahuatl translation of the city's name. The name comes from Kiche Qumarkah "Place of old reeds". Qumarkaj was one of the most powerful Maya cities when the Spanish arrived in the region in the early 16th century. It was the capital of the Kiche Maya in the Late Postclassic Period. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Qumarkaj was a relatively new capital, with the capital of the Kiche kingdom having originally been situated at Jakawitz (identified with the archaeological site Chitinamit) and then at Pismachi. Qumarkaj was founded during the reign of king Ququmatz ("Feathered Serpent" in Kiche) in the early 15th century, immediately to the north of Pismachi. In 1470 the city was seriously weakened by a rebellion among the nobility that resulted in the loss of key allies of the Kiche. Archaeologically and ethnohistorically, Qumarkaj is the best known of the Late Postclassic highland Maya capitals. The earliest reference to the site in Spanish occurs in Hernán Cortés' letters from Mexico. Although the site has been investigated, little reconstruction work has taken place. The surviving architecture, which includes a Mesoamerican ballcourt,

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).