TOPOGEAPHY OF GUATEMALA. 



229 



contained 100,000 inhabitants. The ruins occupy a considerable space on the 

 crest of a hill ; but the Pokonian language has been driven farther east by Quiche, 

 the idiom of the people who, before the arrival of the Spaniards, had gradually 

 acquired the political ascendency. Nearly all the summits in the Rabinal 

 district are crowned with ancient strongholds, now overgrown by a luxuriant 

 vegetation, while the Pakalah valley, facing the confluence of the Eabinal and 

 Chixoy rivers, is occupied by the temples, palaces, and citadels of CaJtuinal, form- 

 ing the finest group of rums in Vera Paz. 



The towns situated on the plateaux and heights to the east of Quezaltenango 

 and Totonicapara, although still standing at a great elevation above the sea, are 

 not regarded as belonging to the region of the Altos. Solola, which has given 



Fig. 96. — SoLOLA AND Lake Atitlan. 

 Scale 1 : 550,000. 



&'' 





i SOLOLA*(TACPANATITLAN) 

 SuerTav.e ifut a . ^ -^ .cj^ «(ft.?', ju j^,^ 



S^r'Y 





3i''20- 



9l°iO' West of (jreenw.ch 



12 Miles. 



its name to one oi the departments of the republic, lies at an elevation of 7,000 

 feet on a terrace terminating towards Lake Atitlan in a rocky peak which rises 

 to a height of nearly 2,000 feet. Two deep ravines on the right and left sides 

 give to the terrace the aspect of a superb promontory, entirely detached from 

 the rest of the plateau except on the north side. Beyond the last houses of 

 Solola is seen the rampart of walls and huge blocks piled up and cemented with 

 an argillaceous mortar without apparent tenacity. Thus the vast ruin seems as 

 if about to fall with a crash into the blue lake, which is enclosed on the north by 

 steep cliffs, on the south by gently-sloping green banks, rising in a succession of 

 graceful curves towards the Atitlan vole nio. A path cut at sharp angles in the 

 tufas and rocks of the escarpment leads from Solola to the margin of the lake, 

 and to the village of Fanajaehel, whose name is sometimes extended to the basin 



