Qualla: Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name: Introduction https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. The ruins that tourists visit today as Mixco Viejo are not, in fact, Mixco Viejo. For decades, archaeologists excavated this hilltop fortress in Guatemala's Chimaltenango department believing it was the Postclassic capital of the Poqomam Maya. They dug, they cataloged, they published -- all under an identity that belonged to a different city entirely. The real Mixco Viejo, the Poqomam capital, lies elsewhere, near the modern town of Mixco, at a site now called Chinautla Viejo. The ruins visitors actually walk through are Jilotepeque Viejo, capital of the Chajoma kingdom, a place whose inhabitants once knew it by a far more evocative name: Chuwa Pek Q'eqak'ajol Nima Ab'aj -- "Great Stone in Front of the Cave of the Children of Night."

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/9fxs-mixco-viejo-the-city-with-a-secret-cave-and-a-stol-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name: A Case of Mistaken Identity https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. The confusion traces back to colonial-era records. When Spanish administrators wrote about the Poqomam capital they had conquered and burned, they referred to it as Mixco Viejo. Centuries later, when archaeologists went looking for the site, they settled on the impressive ruins i...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/9fxs-mixco-viejo-the-city-with-a-secret-cave-and-a-stol-a-case-of-mistaken-identity.mp3 0:06 2 full Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name: A Fortress Between Ravines https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo/ Photo credit BladimiroAlvarado, CC BY-SA 4.0. Jilotepeque Viejo sits at the junction of the Pixcaya and Motagua rivers, about 50 kilometers north of Guatemala City. The Chajoma chose the location deliberately: their previous capital had been vulnerable to attack from the hostile Kaqchikel kingdom based at Iximche. This new s...

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Image: BladimiroAlvarado | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/9fxs-mixco-viejo-the-city-with-a-secret-cave-and-a-stol-a-fortress-between-ravines.mp3 0:06 3 full Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name: The Cave That Broke a Siege https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo/ Photo credit Mauricio Osorio Lajuj, CC BY-SA 4.0. The real Mixco Viejo -- Chinautla Viejo, the Poqomam capital -- has its own dramatic story. Founded on a defensive mountaintop in the 12th century, it housed perhaps 10,000 people at its peak. In 1525, Pedro de Alvarado sent a company to conquer it. The Poqomam sealed themselves ...

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Image: Mauricio Osorio Lajuj | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/9fxs-mixco-viejo-the-city-with-a-secret-cave-and-a-stol-the-cave-that-broke-a-siege.mp3 0:06 4 full Mixco Viejo: The City with a Secret Cave and a Stolen Name: Burned and Abandoned https://qualla.com/mixco-viejo/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. Alvarado recognized the defensive strength of both cities. At Chinautla Viejo, he ordered the Poqomam capital burned and its inhabitants relocated to the new colonial settlement of Mixco, where their descendants remain. Jilotepeque Viejo, the Chajoma capital that tourists now vis...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/f/x/s/mixco-viejo-wp/9fxs-mixco-viejo-the-city-with-a-secret-cave-and-a-stol-burned-and-abandoned.mp3 0:06 5 full