When Spanish conquistadors entered the Guatemalan highlands in 1524, they found a population divided into a number of states, each with its own language and capital city - today’s ruins of Zaculeu, Iximchè and Gumarcaaj, for example.

The contemporary Maya speak two dozen languages, belonging to five main language groups: Quichè Mam, Qanjobal, Chol and Yucateca. These languages are believed to have evolved from a common, “Protomaya” language spocken 4,000 years ago in the Cuchumatàn region of Guatemala, the same region where maze may have fist been cultivated. More than 4 million people, or 40% of Guatemala’s population, speak a Maya language and many do not speak Spanish at all. Visitors will see many Maya villages while travelling through the Guatemalan highlands, in places such as LakeAtitlàn, Chichicastenango and Quetzaltenango. The Maya who live here have conserved a significant part of their calendar and traditions such as farming and weaving on back-strap looms to make the textiles for which Guatemala is famed.