Petén Department

The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of the Maya Lowlands, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into the state of Campeche in southeastern Mexico. During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology many major centers of the Maya civilization flourished, such as Tikal and Calakmul. A distinctive Petén-style of Maya architecture and inscriptions arose. The archaeological sites La Sufricaya and Holmul are also located in this region.

San Benito is a municipality in the El Petén department of Guatemala. It covers an area of 112 km2, and had 29,926 inhabitants at the 2002 Census; the latest official estimate (as at mid 2012) was 59,486 people. It is located adjacent to departmental capital Flores.

Santa Elena is located on the shores of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén department of Guatemala. It is connected by a causeway to its sister town of Flores (the capital of the Petén department) and the two (together with San Benito) are often referred to as just Flores. It is the location for Mundo Maya International Airport, which is located just outside the town.

Nojpetén (also spelled Noh Petén, and also known as Tayasal) was the capital city of the Itza Maya kingdom of Petén Itzá. It was located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá in the modern department of Petén in northern Guatemala. The island is now occupied by the modern town of Flores, the capital of the Petén department, and has had uninterrupted occupation since pre-Columbian times. Nojpetén had defensive walls built upon the low ground of the island, which may have been hastily constructed by the Itza at a time when they felt threatened either by the encroaching Spanish or by other Maya groups.

Flores is the capital of the Petén Department, Guatemala's landlocked, northernmost department. The population is 13,700 (2003). Flores is the seat of the municipality of Flores (population 22,600). Its Catedral Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios y San Pablo Itzá is the cathedral episcopal seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of El Petén (formerly a territorial prelature). The old part of the city is located on an island on Lake Petén Itzá, connected to the mainland by a short causeway. On the mainland is the suburb Santa Elena and, to the West, the contiguous municipality of San Benito. The municipality of Flores also includes a wide swathe of rural territory stretching north from Lake Petén Itzá to the Mexican border.

Mundo Maya International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional Mundo Maya, IATA: FRS, ICAO: MGMM), formerly Flores International Airport as indicated by its 3-letter code, is an international airport located in the suburb of Santa Elena, in the city of Flores, Guatemala. It serves national and international air traffic for the areas of Flores, Santa Elena, and San Benito, as well as all the Maya sites of Tikal or Yaxhá and destinations such as Guatemala City and Belize. The airport lacks many amenities compared to other airports its size. It only has 1 small cafe landside and a large sitting area airside. Despite its size and lack of jetbridges, lounges, and restaurant it is still Guatemala's second busiest airport. Mundo Maya Airport, like other airports in Guatemala, is going through some expansions, to provide a better service to passengers and airlines, so it will be able to accept a greater number of flights and larger aircraft. In 2012, the ICAO airport identifier for Mundo Maya International Airport changed from MGTK to MGMM.

Tayasal is a Maya archaeological site located in present-day Guatemala. It was a large Maya city with a long history of occupation. Tayasal is a corruption of Tah Itza ("Place of the Itza"), a term originally used to refer to the core of the Itza territory in Petén. The name Tayasal was applied in error to the archaeological site, and originally applied to the Itza capital. However, the name now refers to the peninsula supporting both the archaeological site and the village of San Miguel. The site was occupied from the Middle Preclassic period (c. 1000–350 BC) through to the Late Postclassic (c. 1200–1539 AD).The site is a protected national monument.

Nixtun-Chʼichʼ is an Itza Maya archaeological site in Petén Department, Guatemala. It has an urban grid with fairly well ordered streets and avenues dated to around 2500 years ago. This is one of the earliest urban grids in the Americas and likely emerged as the ancient Maya developed more complex forms of political organization. It was likely a means to regulate and perhaps dominate the inhabitants. Nevertheless, the grid system at Nixtun-Chʼichʼ did not catch on and is not seen in later Maya cities.

San Andrés is a municipality in the department of El Petén in Guatemala. The municipality is formed by the town of San Andrés, located on the north-western shore of Lake Petén Itzá, and 55 rural communities, with a total population of 20,295 people (census 2002).The municipality was created in 1962 and has a territory 8,874 km², equivalent to 25% of the department of El Petén. In the 1990s, more than 93% (8,288 km²) of the municipality's territory was declared protected nature reserve by the central government.

Estadio Julián Tesucún is a multi-use stadium in San José, Guatemala. It is currently used mostly for football matches, on club level by Heredia Jaguares de Peten of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. The stadium has a capacity of 8,000 spectators.

San José is a municipality in the Petén Department of Guatemala. It contains 3,602 people. It lies on the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá and is located a few kilometers from the Classic Period Maya ruin of Motul de San José. El Zotz is also located in the municipality.

The 1986 Aerovías Guatemala air crash occurred on 18 January 1986 and involved a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III that crashed into a hill on approach to Santa Elena Airport, Flores, Guatemala after a short flight from Guatemala City's La Aurora International Airport. All 93 passengers and crew on board were killed, making it the worst air disaster in Guatemalan history.