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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Wonderful tourist Locations Guatemala

Guatemala is an amazing tourist locations country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its area is 108,890 km² (42,043 mi²) with an estimated population of 13,276,517. A representative democracy, its capital is Guatemala City. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.


During the colonial period, Guatemala was an Audiencia and a Captaincy General of Spain, and a part of New Spain (Mexico). It extended from the modern Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas to Costa Rica. This region was not as rich in minerals (gold and silver) as Mexico and Peru, and was therefore not considered to be as important. Its main products were sugarcane, cocoa, blue aƱil dye, red dye from cochineal insects, and precious woods used in artwork for churches and palaces in Spain.


The origin of the name Guatemala is unclear, but several theories exist. Guatemala may mean the land of the high trees in the Maya-Toltec language. Another theory is that it comes from the Nahuatl expression Cuauhtitlan, meaning between the trees. Cuauhtitlan was the name the Tlaxcaltecan soldiers who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado during the Spanish Conquest gave to this territory. Lastly, there is a theory that it is the Spanish corruption of a Nahoa word coactmoct-lan, meaning land of the snake eating bird.


A burst sewer pipe or storm drain probably hollowed out the underground cavity that allowed the chasm to form, The Guatemala City sinkhole, estimated to be 60 feet (18 meters) wide and 300 feet (100 meters) deep, appears to have been triggered by the deluge from tropical storm Agatha. But the cavity formed in the first place because the city and its underground infrastructure were built in a region where the first few hundred meters of ground are mostly made up of a material called pumice fill, deposited during past volcanic eruptions. Natural sinkholes generally form when heavy, water-saturated soil causes the roof of an underground limestone cavity to collapse, or when water widens a natural fracture in limestone bedrock.

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