Flores, Petén

View of Flores from Lake Peten Itza, Petén

The Itza left the Yucatán region in the 13th century and built the city later known as Tayasal as their capital. They called it Nojpetén, (noj peten, literally "Great Island" in the Itza language).[1] The Spanish called it Tayasal, possibly derived from ta Itza, or "Place of the Itza".[2]

It was here, on the island of Flores on the shore of Lake Petén Itzá, that the last independent Maya state held out against the Spanish conquerors. In 1541, Hernán Cortés came to the island, en route to Honduras, but needed to move on and did not try to conquer it.

The Spanish did not manage to conquer the island until 1697, when they marched in, attacked via boats, and destroyed it. Those who could flee did so, and many Itzá people hid in the jungle for years. From the ruins of Nojpetén arose the modern city of Flores. The modern city can thus be regarded as the second oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the Americas, after Cholula.

The first photographs ever made from Flores were those taken by engineer Claudio Urrutia in 1897, when he was in charge of the Guatemala-Mexico Border Commission.[3]

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  Flores, as seen from San Benito
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  Engineering crew of the Guatemalan Border Commission. Claudio Urrutia, Commission Director is in the middle.

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  Aerial view of Flores Island from above Santa Elena.
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  Sunset in Flores.
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  Restaurant on Lake Petén Itza
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  Causeway connecting the island .
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  Shore of Lake Petén Itza.
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  Classic period panel in the main plaza of Flores found in the nearby site of Ixlu.
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  The island in 1917.
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  Aerial view of the City.