The relief map of Guatemala, is a map of the whole country of Guatemala and Belize. It has most major cities, volcanos, rivers (some with running water), ports, oil fields and more. It is maintained my Guatemala City Municipal Goverment and in decent shape. It was inaugurated on October 29th, 1905.
The map was done by Lieutenant Colonel and Engineer Francisco Vela, with colaboration of Engineer Claudio Urrutia.
You can find some monuments dedicated to the people that worked on the map, one done by R. Galeotti Torres in 1981.
It can take less than an hour to visit the park. in it’s surroundings you can find a baseball park, a little league baseball park, a park for children with free and paid games.
In the days around the 15th of August a fair is installed in that area. The fair is in honor on the Guatemala City’s patroness Virgin Mary of Assumption. There you can taste the flavor of a local fair, and while is get more modern every time, some of it’s tradition is kept. Also is a great moment to see locals, as it gets really packed.
Usually the area gets a little crowded on weekends, specially on Sundays, when the main street getting there (other streets remain open) is closed from 10 am to 2 pm for an activity called Pasos y Pedales (Steps and Pedaling) where people can walk or bicycle in the street in a nice and safe activity.
Information from posters found inside the relief map site (transcribed):
In all the contour of the Map in Relief we can observe a railing with a sequence of six medallions in low relief paced symmetrically, done in 1905 by Antonio Doninelli’s company. The allegories of the medallions are> The National Shield, The Central American Shield, The Quetzal, The Ceiba, The Prosperity and in every column one finds the monogram of Republic of Guatemala or Spain (Lady with two terrestrial globes that there symbolizes the union of the old world with the new one).
- In the part that represents the Sew of the Cuchumatanes one finds and underground warehouse of 60 cubic meters of capacity for water that connects with 750 pipeline yardsticks of lead that were feeding the principal rivers and it was providing water to the applying the principle of the “theory of the level of the liquids” for communicating glasses. In the present only a river still works with this system.
- During the inaguration of the Map in Relief the Engineer Francisco Vela had a surprise prepared for the spectators. The President Manuel Estrada Cabrera placed the last stone in the top of the Chemal mountain, you still can see that last stone.
