page_title: Wajxaklajun
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Wajxaklajun / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Carved Maya stela in the ruins at San Mateo Ixtatán. Español: Una estela labrada en las ruinas mayas de San Mateo Ixtatán.
context_page_description: Wajxaklajun is a ruin of the ancient Maya civilization situated adjacent to the modern town of San Mateo Ixtatán, in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala. Wajxaklajun is considered to be the most important archaeological site in the San Mateo Ixtatán area. The site has been dated to the Classic period. The Chuj Maya consider the city to have been built by their ancestors. The site has similarities with other nearby highland Maya ruins; it is unusual for the presence of a number of stelae, a feature more associated with lowland sites during the Classic period, probably indicating some level of exchange with lowland cities.
context_section_description: Wajxaklajun means "eighteen" in the Chuj language; this has been interpreted as deriving from the site originally consisting of eighteen mounds. This is a modern interpretation however, and it is possible that the name originally derived from a Maya calendrical name. A longer form of the name has been recorded as Chonjab' Tepan Wajxaklajun; this translates as "town and temple eighteen", from chonhap' "town", and tepan "church". Alternative names for the site include Yolk'u (meaning "in the sun") and El Calvario, sometimes contracted to Carvao, or Curvao. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, Wajxaklajun was given the Nahuatl name Ystapalan (meaning "place of salt"); this was later modified to Ystatlan ("abundance of salt" in Nahuatl).
caption: Stela at Wajxaklajun
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