Guatemala

With an area of 42,085 miles (109,000 square kilometers), Guatemala is largest country in Central America. It is bordered by Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The climate and topography range from the hot and humid tropical lowlands of the northern Petén region and the narrow southern coast to the cooler mountainous regions of the west. With the largest tropical rain forest in Central America, Guatemala also has a diversity of flora and fauna increasingly being threatened by deforestation and pollution.

Guatemala lies in the heart of classic Mayan civilization, which flourished from about 800 b.c.e. to 900 c.e., with the rise and eventual collapse of great cities like Tikal. Following the Spanish conquest in ...