Гватемаланың ежелгі Сакулеу қаласы

Archaeological site in Guatemala

Zaculeu or Saqulew is a pre Columbian Maya archaeological site in the highlands of western Guatemala, about outside the modern city of Huehuetenango. Occupation at the site dates to the Early Classic period (AD 250–600) of Mesoamerican history. Zaculeu was the capital of the Postclassic Mam kingdom, and was conquered by the Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj. It displays a mixture of Mam and Kʼicheʼ style architecture. In AD 1525 the city was attacked by Spanish conquistadors under Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras during a siege that lasted several months. Kayb'il B'alam, the city's last ruler, finally surrendered to the Spanish due to starvation. The pyramids and governmental palaces are grouped around a series of large public plazas. The site also holds a court for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame.

The name Zaculeu means "white earth" in the Mam, Kʼicheʼ and Q'anjob'al languages, from saq (adj) meaning "white" and ulew (n) meaning "earth". In the Mam language, the site is also called Chinabajul. Zaculeu is located at an altitude of above mean sea level, and is bordered by the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountain range. Zaculeu is located in an area of fertile soils close to the Selegua and Viña rivers. The site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Selegua River, which flows to the west of the city. Deep ravines bordering the site to the south and east protected its access. The only access to the site is via a narrow land bridge to the north, which unites the plateau to the general level of the valley floor. The Zaculeu plateau measures 11,178 square varas (4191 square metres).

Zaculeu was first occupied in the Early Classic Period (AD 250–600), The city was dominated by the Kʼicheʼ until the Spanish Conquest of the early 16th century. [[File:Zacuelu1. jpg|thumb|left|The ballcourt seen across Plaza 2, with the rear of Structure 13 at right. The Kʼicheʼ rebuilt over earlier Classic period structures in a distinctively Kʼicheʼ style. The basic Kʼicheʼ layout consists of a westward facing temple with a steep talud tablero facade, flanked by two unequally sized wings. This was likely to have been the temple of Awilix, patron goddess of the Nija'ib' Kʼicheʼ. A longer palace structure lies to the north, facing southwards and the ballcourt to the southwest. This Kʼicheʼ layout was somewhat distorted by the reuse of the earlier architecture, because the typical Mam settlement layout was built along an axis running from southeast to northwest. As the Kʼicheʼ did not completely redesign the entire site along a Kʼicheʼ pattern, the juxtaposition of Mam and Kʼicheʼ style complexes demonstrates the fusing of the local and intrusive elite lineages.

Although hostilities existed between the Mam and the Kʼicheʼ of Qʼumarkaj after the rebellion of the Kaqchikel people against their Kʼicheʼ allies, the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors shifted the political landscape. Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado described how the Mam king Kayb'il B'alam was received with great honour in Qʼumarkaj. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the main Mam population was situated in Xinabahul (also spelled Chinabjul), now the city of Huehuetenango. They retreated to Zaculeu as a refuge during the Spanish attacks because of its fortifications. The refuge was attacked by Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras, brother of conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, in 1525, with 120 soldiers, and some 2,000 Mexican and Kʼicheʼ allies. The city was defended by Kayb'il B'alam When the Spanish entered the city, they found 1,800 dead Indians, with the survivors eating the corpses of the dead. On 24 April 1931, Guatemala declared the site as a National Monument under the name of Tzaculeu. This later included re coating a number of the buildings with white plaster, as it was known that many were originally finished that way. This has seldom been done in other restorations of Pre Columbian buildings. On 12 June 1970 the site was declared a National Precolumbian Monument by accord of the Guatemalan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC).