Izabal Department

Izabal
Department

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Izabal
Coordinates: 15°44′0″N 88°36′0″W / 15.73333°N 88.60000°W / 15.73333; -88.60000Coordinates: 15°44′0″N 88°36′0″W / 15.73333°N 88.60000°W / 15.73333; -88.60000
Country Guatemala
Department Izabal
Capital Puerto Barrios
Municipalities 5
Government
 • Type Departmental
Area
 • Department 9,038 km2 (3,490 sq mi)
 • Water 590 km2 (230 sq mi)
Population (Census 2002)[1]
 • Department 314,306
 • Urban 90,508
 • Ethnicities Ladino, Q'eqchi', Garífuna, Afro-Caribbean
 • Religions Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Maya
Time zone -6
ISO 3166 code GT-IZ

Izabal (Spanish pronunciation: [isaˈβal]) is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. Its coastal areas form part of the homeland of the Garifuna people.

Izabal is bordered to the north by Belize, to the north east by the Gulf of Honduras, and to the east by Honduras, and by the Guatemalan departments of Petén to the north west, Alta Verapaz to the west, and Zacapa to the south.

The department of Izabal surrounds Lago Izabal (or Lago de Izabal), Guatemala's largest lake (about 48 km long and 24 km wide, with an area of about 590 km²). The Spanish Colonial fort of San Felipe, now a Guatemalan national monument, overlooks the point where the lake flows into the Río Dulce.

The small town of Izabal is on the south shore of the lake; before the construction of the ports of Livingston and Puerto Barrios in the 19th century this was Guatemala's main Caribbean Sea port and was the original seat of Izabal department; nowadays, however, Izabal town is a remote village that gets little traffic.

From the area around Lake Izabal, the Department of Izabal stretches along the Río Dulce to the coast of the Caribbean Sea.

The department of Izabal includes the ports of Puerto Barrios (the departmental seat), Santo Tomás de Castilla, Livingston and Guatemala's free trade zone Zolic. Izabal also includes the Pre-Columbian Maya ruins of Quirigua.

Municipalities

  1. El Estor
  2. Livingston
  3. Los Amates
  4. Morales
  5. Puerto Barrios

Geographic location

 Petén Department  Belize Gulf of Honduras
Alta Verapaz Department  Honduras[2]
   Izabal  
Zacapa Department[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "XI Censo Nacional de Poblacion y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002)". INE. 2002.
  2. 1 2 SEGEPLAN. "Municipios de Izabal, Guatemala". Secretaría General de Planificación. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
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