Zunil () is a town and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Quetzaltenango department of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

with a surface area of .Zunil at Inforpressca
The town of Zunil is located from the city of

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is a municipality and namesake department in western Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It may reach above ...

, on the bank of the

Salamá River The Salamá River is a river in Guatemala. It is a tributary of the Chixoy River. The river is fed by a number of streams running down the slopes of the Sierra de las Minas and Sierra de Chuacús and flows in a north-westerly direction through the ...

.Cattelan 2004, p.36. Zunil has an altitude of approximately

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The population of the municipality, which is 100% indigenous, was 14,118 at the 2018 census. The inhabitants speak Kʼicheʼ and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. There are thermal baths with volcanic water around the town, for example Fuentes Georginas and

Almolonga The Almolonga volcano, also called "Cerro Quemado" (Burned Mountain) or "La Muela" (The Molar) due to its distinct shape, is an andesitic stratovolcano in the south-western department of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. Part of the mountain range o ...

Religion

Zunil possesses active worship of ''San Simón'' (also known as

Maximón Maximón (), is a Maya deity and folk saint, represented in various forms by the Maya peoples of several towns in the Guatemalan Highlands. Oral tradition of his creation and purpose in these communities is complex, diverse, and born of the anci ...

), a life-sized mannequin representing a

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

god, sitting in a wooden throne, which is moved to a different house every year, and many people visit and leave gifts at his shrine.

Namesakes

A crater on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, which may be the source of Mars meteorites, is named after the village..

Gallery

File:indoor market zunil guatemala.JPG, Indoor market File:Zunil_church.JPG, Church in Zunil File:Zunil panorama.JPG, Panorama of Zunil Image:Zunil buses.JPG, Buses in Zunil

Notes

References

External links

*
Zunil at Inforpressca
Municipalities of the Quetzaltenango Department {{Guatemala-geo-stub