Chichicastenango - City of Guatemala

Chichicastenango, also known as Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, is a town in the El Quiché department of Guatemala, known for its traditional Maya Indian culture. The Spanish conquistadors gave the town its name from the Nahuatl name used by their soldiers from Tlaxcala: Tzitzicaztenanco, or City of Nettles. Its original name was Chaviar.

Chichicastenango serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name.

Chichicatenango is a small and stucco-white town. It is located about 140 km northwest of Guatemala City.

Next to the market is the 400-year old church of Santo Tomás. It is built atop a Pre-Columbian platform, and the steps originally leading to a temple of the pre-Hispanic Maya civilization remain venerated. Shamans still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles. In special cases, they burn a chicken for the gods. Each of the 18 stairs that lead up to the church stands for one month of the Maya calendar year. They also have an ancient carved stone known as Pascual Abaj nearby and the Maya priests perform several rituals there. Writing on the stone records the doings of a king named Tohil.

On Thursdays and Sundays there is a large market where vendors sell handicrafts, food, flowers, pottery, wooden boxes, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, pom and copal, cal , grindstones, pigs and chickens, machetes, and other tools. In the central part of the market plaza are comedores .