Santa Cruz de Quiché is a town in Guatemala, in the province of El Quiché, of which it is the departmental capital. The town is located at 15.03° North, 91.15° West at an elevation of 2,021 m (6,631 feet) above sea level. The population was about 2l,000 people as of 2003. El Quiché El Quiché is a department of Guatemala. ... For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Santa Cruz de Quiché was founded by Pedro de Alvarado, a companion of the conquistador Hernán Cortés, after he burned down the nearby Maya capital city of Gumarcaj (or Utatlán, in the Nahuatl language). The oldest buildings, including a large cathedral and clock tower in the central plaza, were constructed out of the stones of the Gumarcaj ruins by the Dominicans. Some think it likely that it was in Santa Cruz where a group of anonymous Quiché nobles of the Nim Ch'okoj class transcribed the Popol Vuh, the sacred text of the Maya. Pedro de Alvarado (Badajoz, c. ... Conquistador (meaning Conqueror in the Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas and Asia Pacific under Spanish rule between the 15th and 17th centuries. ... Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés (1485–December 2, 1547) (who was known as Hernando or Fernando Cortés during his lifetime and signed all his letters Fernán Cortés) was the conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain. ... The Maya are people of southern Mexico and northern Central America (Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador) with some 3,000 years of history. ... Gumarcaj, sometimes rendered as Cumarcaj or Kumarcaaj, is an archeological site in El Quiché department of Guatemala. ... Nahuatl is a native language of central Mexico. ... A cathedral is a Christian church building, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy (such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican churches), which serves as the central church of a bishopric. ... Plaza is a Spanish word related to field which describes an open public space, such as a town square. ... This page is about the Native American people; for the dish, see quiche. ... The Popol Vuh (Council Book or Book of the Community; Popol Wuj in modern Quiché spelling) is the book of scripture of the Quiché, a Kingdom of the Maya civilization in Guatemala. ... Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ...

In Santa Cruz, the former rulers of Cumarcaj were reduced to the status of peasant. As the living conditions were so pitiful in the city, the town of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, about 20 miles to the south of Santa Cruz, began to swell with the immigration of displaced Mayas and soon passed up Santa Cruz in both size and importance. Categories: 1911 Britannica | Historical stubs | Feudalism ...