page_title: Iximche
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Iximche / History / Modern history
context_page_description: Iximcheʼ is a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the western highlands of Guatemala. Iximche was the capital of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until its abandonment in 1524. The architecture of the site included a number of pyramid-temples, palaces and two Mesoamerican ballcourts. Excavators uncovered the poorly preserved remains of painted murals on some of the buildings and ample evidence of human sacrifice. The ruins of Iximche were declared a Guatemalan National Monument in the 1960s. The site has a small museum displaying a number of pieces found there, including sculptures and ceramics. It is open daily.
  For many years the Kaqchikel served as loyal allies of the Kʼicheʼ Maya. The growing power of the Kaqchikel within the alliance eventually caused such friction that the Kaqchikel were forced to flee the Kʼicheʼ capital and found the city of Iximche. The Kaqchikel established their new capital upon an easily defensible ridge almost surrounded by deep ravines. Iximche developed quickly as a city and within 50 years of its foundation it had reached its maximum extent.
context_section_description: The ruins were described by Guatemalan historian Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán in 1695. Miguel Rivera Maestre published some plans and views of the ruins in 1834 in his Atlas del Estado de Guatemala ("Atlas of the State of Guatemala"). American diplomat and writer John Lloyd Stephens described the ruins, which he called Patinamit, after he visited Iximche with English artist Frederick Catherwood and in 1840. Catherwood never published any drawings of the site and Stephens reported that the locals had plundered the stone at the site for many years in order to use it for building materials in Tecpán. French architect Cesar Daly mapped Iximche in 1857.
  In Spanish Colonial times Iximche was the focus of a syncretic cult worshipping a relic from the ruins that had been transferred to the church in Tecpán. As late as the 19th century processions to the ruins from Tecpán took place every Good Friday. This cult had died out by the time of the Guatemalan Civil War in the late 20th century.
  Alfred P. Maudslay visited Iximche in 1887 and referred to it both as Patinamit and Iximche. He carried out a site survey and published a plan of the ruins. Robert Wauchope carried out a ceramic study of Iximche in the 1940s on behalf of the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University and published his work in 1948–1949. Historian Janos de Szecsy began excavations at the ruins in January 1956. The remains of the city were excavated by Swiss-Guatemalan archaeologist George (Jorge) Guillemín from 1959-1972. Guillemín published his work in 1959, 1967 and 1969. The excavation and restoration of the ruins was funded by the Guatemalan Committee for Reconstruction of National Monuments until July 1961, after 1963 the investigations were funded by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research. Guillemín died before his investigations could be completed and his full report published. His field notes were finally published in 2003.
  In 1960 the ruins of Iximche were declared a National Monument under governmental decree 1360 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, published in May 1963. In 1980, during the Guatemalan Civil War, the ruins were chosen as a meeting place between Maya leaders and the guerillas, as a result of which the guerillas stated explicitly that they would defend indigenous rights in the so-called "Declaration of Iximche". In 1989 an important Maya ceremony was carried out at the site in order to reestablish the ruins as a sacred place for indigenous ceremonies.
  United States President Bush visited the site on March 12, 2007. Local Maya priests said that they would be conducting purifying rites after his visit to cleanse the area of "bad spirits" brought by the president, who they said persecuted their "migrant brothers" in the United States. "We reject this portrayal of our people as a tourist attraction," a spokesman, Morales Toj, said.
  From 26–30 March 2007 Iximche was the site of the III Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala. The meeting's closing "Declaration of Iximche" committed delegates to a struggle for social justice and against "neoliberalism and other forms of oppression."
caption: Dancers and marimba performing at Iximche for the 2007 visit of the presidents of Guatemala and the United States
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