Guatemala UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Guatemala joined UNESCO on January 2, 1950.

The UNESCO Office in Guatemala City, founded in 1996, supports the country’s participation in UNESCO activities ranging from culture to the exact and natural sciences. Guatemala signed the World Heritage Convention on January 16, 1979. Two cultural sites (Antigua Guatemala and the Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua) and one mixed site (Tikal National Park) are featured on the World Heritage List.

The 2005 edition of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report highlighted Guatemala’s major efforts to improve its educational services through open learning programmes. As part of its broad cooperation, UNESCO also supports Guatemala’s New Unitary School. The country participates in several disaster reduction initiatives and in a remote sensing project to help protect biodiversity in the Mesoamerica Biological Corridor.

UNESCO’s Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, visited Guatemala in March 2004.

Built in the early 1500s, Antigua Guatemala was built in an earthquake prone area and was once the capital city of the Captaincy-General of Guatemala under the Spanish crown. Though the city and its beautiful colonial architecture was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1773, many monuments and ruins have been preserved for public enjoyment.